January's meeting with Cllr Paul Barnett
Hastings Borough Council’s leader, Cllr Paul Barnett presents their Corporate Plan & Budget 2023/2024 to Hastings Chamber Of Commerce
Leader of Hastings Borough Council Cllr Paul Barnett joined the Chamber for the annual presentation of the proposed Corporate Plan & Budget, inviting members of the Chamber and local business community to hear about the plans, and give their views on what it would mean for the town.
This presentation of the proposed budget was one of a few that Cllr Paul Barnett has been, and will be presenting to the town, to get the widest view and feedback possible from the people of Hastings and the surrounding area.
The position of the Council
The council had previously agreed its corporate plan until 2024 back in 2020, shortly before COVID-19 took hold. The pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to our communities, and the aftermath meant the UK government and our local councils had to abandon previous plans and work to handle the impact it left in its wake. Inflation, rising energy and living costs and lack of investment into parts of our town has meant that a new corporate plan was to be made to try to tackle these issues for our town.The council had previously agreed its corporate plan until 2024 back in 2020, shortly before COVID-19 took hold. The pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to our communities, and the aftermath meant the UK government and our local councils had to abandon previous plans and work to handle the impact it left in its wake. Inflation, rising energy and living costs and lack of investment into parts of our town has meant that a new corporate plan was to be made to try to tackle these issues for our town.
“The Council continues to find itself in a challenging financial position. Further increases in homelessness costs, inflation, wages and salaries, with uncertainty on income streams, levels of bad debt, and claimant levels. We have had to deal with well over a decade of austerity – which has continued into the current year’s settlement.”
— Cllr Paul Barnett, Leader of Hastings Borough Council
The impact of these economic pressures on the town, combined with ongoing rising internal costs for the council, mean that a new approach is being taken with the new Corporate Plan & Budget to meet the most urgent needs of the town, especially some of our more deprived communities, as well as secure the future of the council for years to come.
To preface their presentation of the planned budget:
“We are keen to continue to work with you, our Hastings partners and residents, so we can address the inequalities our town faces together. We will start talking to residents and businesses this year about new ways of delivering on health, environment and culture.”
— Cllr Paul Barnett
Planned priorities
• Tackling homelessness, poverty and ensuring quality housing
• Keeping Hastings clean and safe
• Making best use of our land, buildings, public realm and cultural assets
• Minimising environment and climate harm in all that we do
• Delivery of our major regeneration schemes
• Ensuring the council can survive and thrive into the future
• Resources being directed at tackling homelessness to help reduce increasing cost of supporting residents in housing need
The possible impact of these priorities
• Tackling the housing crisis in our town is the top priority
• The focus on housing means other services might be paused or stopped while this is addressed.
• Working with other groups and organisations to deliver non-statutory services in the most efficient way.
• Addressing the climate emergency in all that the council does, by embedding it within our service delivery.
The headlines for the new budget
• Tackling the Housing Crisis is the number one priority
• £1.9m savings identified – but still not enough to cover additional costs.
• Growth of £2.3m identified for homelessness alone.
• Fees and charges increased by 10%, current headline CPI rate (10.7%).
• Maintaining 100% support for most vulnerable households in Council Tax Reduction Scheme.
• Will fall to below minimum recommended level of Reserves (£6m) in 2023/24 but expected to rise again in 2025/26.
• Maximum council tax increase for districts 2.99%.
• Spending Review – three years, but local government settlement was for one year
The proposed budget includes raising the Hastings element of council tax by the maximum amount allowed by the government – 2.99%.
Proposed spending reductions to generate income:
• Review and reduce Service & Staffing Council Expenditure (£1m) by April 2026.
• Reduce Temporary Accommodation Costs (£3m) by April 2026, (£1m) by April 2024.
• Reduce maintenance costs for Decorative Lighting (£40,000).
• Reduce Marketing contributions (£50,000).
• 10% Reduction in Museum running costs (£35,000).
The 2023/2024 Capital Programme
A new Capital programme which will involve significant investment into the town to benefit those in temporary accommodation, as well as increase stock of available housing:
• Cornwallis Street Development (£9m)
• Housing Acquisition of 50 units of Temp. Accommodation (£4.7m)
• Mayfield E – Housing (£3.5m)
• Bexhill Road South (£2.5m)
• Energy – (£2.3m)
• Cliff Railways (£1m)
• Annual programme of roof refurbishment (£700k)
• Grounds Maintenance Equipment (£626k)
• Energy – Solar Panels (£500k)
• Priory Meadow Contribution to Capital Works (£288k)
• Restoration of Pelham Crescent / Pelham Arcade (£100k)
• Conversion of 12-13 York Buildings (£74k)
• Groyne Refurbishment (£35k)
The challenges the Council expects to face while trying to fulfil on these goals
• Significant volatility in income and expenditure – business rates, factory/shop rents, development control, interest rates, Council Tax Reduction Scheme, etc.
• Increased costs – salaries, utilities, inflation e.g. contracts;
• Increased pressure on council services – for example, temporary accommodation- homelessness;
• Continuing to meet the needs of our town and our deprived communities with less resources across the public sector
After presentation of the proposed budget and plans to the members of the Chamber, Chamber Director Sean Dennis presented the findings of a survey which was put to members of the Chamber earlier this month, to give the overall view of what the business community feels are their current challenges, and what they would like support with from the Council.
Unsurprisingly, majority of respondents felt that the cost of energy and inflation were their biggest challenges to contend with. Combined with the cost-of-living crisis, many members feel that their costs may begin to overwhelm as their revenue may drop.
On the cost of energy and what the Council can do to support businesses in the town with this, Cllr Paul Barnett spoke about a new scheme to be rolled out which had been previously trialled in the town, Solar for Business, which would see the Council subsidise costs of fitting solar panels to the roofs of businesses to help them to cut energy costs. This scheme is expected to roll out this year, with more information on it coming soon.
Questions from members on the proposed budget:
The Council wants to tackle the Housing crisis and get more people into sports to promote health of the town – so why did the Council reject the planning permission for Hastings United to move and create a new sports facility and youth football? It would have created new spaces for in the town.
– We’re protecting our green open spaces. They’re no longer available for sale, there was a decision made by the Council a few years ago to sell some green open spaces, but that’s not the case anymore. We need to protect those spaces, and look for more creative solutions to provide those facilities, because we do need them in the town.
Lots of local authorities are struggling with their planning departments and getting things done. What is the state of the Hastings planning department?
– The department is doing well, but the challenge is being able to keep up with the volume of applications. There’s a long waiting list, but we are just rewriting the Town’s Local Plan which happens every 10 or 15 years – that’s a big opportunity for Hastings as we get to rewrite the plan and change it to how we think the policy should be. We’re going through that process with a consultation on the draft, so that’s an opportunity for businesses to give us their feedback.
You say you want to protect green spaces in Hastings, but you want to build more housing. How does that coincide?
– We want to protect our green spaces, and we plan to build new housing on brown field sites in and around the town. The problem with brown field sites is that we don’t own a lot of them, most are in private ownership and have been land-banked for a long time. Unlocking those, and expecting land value to go up locally, some of those private owners will want that land to come forward. We have plans to go see the owners of those sites to ask about development of those sites.
What will be done about Priory Street car park? If I’m late coming from the office I don’t feel safe walking back to my car, as the gates are always open and it doesn’t feel secure.
– I wrote to the manager about the car park, as it has spare capacity at the moment and has potential. We’re looking at developing the whole of Priory Street long term, and we’re starting a conversation about what could be possible for the area from the station down to the Centre.
Is there any support for new businesses, either start up or growing in the town?
– That’s something that we don’t do. Historically Hastings Borough Council hasn’t been a economic development orientated council. That does fall to the wider East Sussex County Council – but we’re trying to change that by trying to make things work better, especially for smaller businesses in the town, to help them. That’s why we’re working on tackling the price of energy and ease of planning permission is one of our top priorities. We’re building a start up community in Hollington in Churchfields Business Centre which should help 25 businesses with cheaper energy and getting going.
We as a business have decided to put our roots down in Hastings. Even though Hastings has lots of opportunity and lots going for it, it also has been hampered extensively by not engaging with or helping businesses to scale up.
There was a lot of funding for business support up until the end of the European Commission, but that’s ended. In the town now there are lots of shops closing down and businesses closing, and an increase in homelessness – wouldn’t an increase in business support help more businesses to stay afloat and increase jobs, tackling the homelessness crisis?
– We’ve delivered the new business centre which is coming in, and the Council can open doors for you. The funding was useful in skills development and training and helping businesses – the government said that they would replace that money, but that hasn’t been the case. The Hastings share of the Shared Prosperity Fund is much less than we previously had for that, so we’re shifting funding towards developing the most poverty stricken areas in our town.
The draft corporate plan update and budget are available at www.hastings.gov.uk
And you can email responses to consultation@hastings.gov.uk by noon on Friday 3 February 2023.