WAVERLEY Borough Council has warned that spending on services could decrease in the long term in order to balance its books. Waverley councillors will take a fresh look at council tax and spending with the aim of achieving a budget where expenditure is balanced by revenue. A recent seminar has outlined the first steps in this four-year process. The Government has announced its headline plans for local authority spending and, acording to the council, it is estimated that Waverley will need to save £3 million over the next three years. However, because the Government has confirmed that council tax increases will be capped at less than five per cent Waverley says it is facing financial pressures, and uncertainty, particularly around concessionary fares and the level of Government grant. Waverley also argues that the housing budget also has a shortfall to address, as the council needs to pay £9.5 million of tenants' rent to the Government, so meeting the decent homes standard will be a challenge. Mike Band, Waverley's portfolio holder for finance, said: "We have a lot of work to do as a council; challenging our costs, looking for efficiency savings and inevitably making hard decisions, so that we can fulfil our pledge to residents. "However, we have made a start on the process and while what lies ahead might not be easy, I am sure that, working together with Waverley officers, we can achieve what we set out to do."
