Our administration is drawing up its final budget proposals for 2021/22 which are due to be published on Tuesday 19 January.

Feedback from the recent public consultation, recommendations from the Overview and Scrutiny Board and confirmation on the Government settlement have all been carefully considered. A number of changes are being proposed in order to invest more money into services in the Bay our communities value the most.

This includes investing in Torbay’s economy such as:

• £50k towards replacing Paignton Seafront festoon lighting with an up to date alternative
• £250k to start the capital projects for Torquay Town Deal and Paignton Future High Streets Fund
• £500k to deliver our Economic Repositioning Plan, which aims to help the local economy recover from the impacts of COVID-19 as quickly as possible.

Leader of Torbay Council, Steve Darling, said: “We have listened to everyone who had their say in our recent consultation. We have identified extra funding since the original proposal was put together and we want to reinvest this money into services that people say they want and need.

“When we prepared our initial budget proposals, we identified a number of financial pressures as a result of Covid-19. Now that we have received our final settlement from Government, we are able to release some of the funds we set aside in case they weren’t funded centrally. We now want to reinvest these in our communities. Some of this additional funding will be on a one off basis, such as replacing the Paignton seafront lights, as we are still facing financial pressures. But I hope our decision to reinvest in local services will give us more time to work with our communities on more long-term solutions.”

Deputy Leader, Councillor Darren Cowell, said: “We are still working through the details of how much funding we have and exactly how it will be allocated, and all the details will be released soon.

“Over the last year we have made significant changes in the management and practice around Children’s Services. This was backed up with a significant financial investment in the service. We are now seeing improvements in the outcomes of our children and an overall financial benefit. This combined with confirmation about our revenue grant means we can re-invest in the priorities of our communities in the next financial year.

“However, we had considerable additional pressures on our finances this year, mainly due to the COVID pandemic and the majority of the recent funding announcements have not led to an increase in our budget for 2021/2022. Difficult decisions will still have to be made and we will need to continue to do more with less in future years”

The final proposals will be published on budget pages on Tuesday 19 January when they will also go before Cabinet.

The Cabinet’s final budget proposals will be considered at the Adjourned Meeting of the Council on 11 February 2021. If there are any objections then a decision will be deferred to the 25 February when the final budget will be set along with the council tax.