"As a responsible authority, the Royal Borough of Greenwich operates on a four year budget strategy. We do this to ensure that we use all of our resources to make the biggest impact we can, whether its supporting people with disabilities, looking after children, maintaining community centres or cleaning your streets, your council strives to provide the best possible services for you.

We are working to create a fairer Greenwich for everyone who lives and works here. The next four year cycle starts in April 2020 and we need to make sure every pound we spend goes towards helping us achieve this goal.

There are a number of huge challenges and variables that make this budget settting more complex than usual, and a change in any direction could cause significant issues for our finances and the way we run our services.

The ongoing uncertainty surrounding Brexit means that we must develop our contingency plans and consider the likely impact on our services in terms of our staff who are EU citizens and our ability to buy the goods and materials that we need to be able to provide services.

Austerity is still having a huge impact on the services we can provide. We are now entering the 9th consecutive year of sustained cuts to our budgets, which means we have far less money to do all the things people want us to do. Since 2010, our funding has reduced by a staggering £1,400 per household, totalling some £125 million, largely as a result of funding that the Government has taken away from us. At the same time, the population has grown, and more people have had to use our services.

The country will have a new Prime Minister by the end of July and both candidates are proposing changes across the public sector. There is a strong possibility that austerity will continue for councils so we must consider how we can increase our income and manage our budgets to protect frontline services for our residents.

We have the 11th lowest council tax out of all the 32 London boroughs, but deciding to ask people to pay more earlier this year was not easy. Council tax makes up less than a quarter of our budget, so even if we were to increase it again, it would not make up the shortfall we’d be left with following  the reduction in government grants.

Before we set the budget for 2019/20 we carried out a public consultation. Most people who responded agreed with our proposals, and many suggested other ways that we can save money and increase our income. Over the coming months we would like to hear your thoughts and ideas on how we can meet this challenge. We will also be suggesting a number of proposals for the next four year cycle and I look forward to hearing the views of our residents and partners so that we can continue to provide the best possible services right across our community."

Cllr Danny Thorpe, Leader of the Royal Borough of Greenwich

Get involved in budget consultations

If you would like to take part and have your say on future budget proposals, sign up to our email newsletter, check future issues of Greenwich Info and these web pages for details of how to get involved.