Conservative-led West Lindsey District Council has revealed an exciting capital investment plan to spend £53 million over the next five years. This includes £7 million on leisure provision and £5 million on a development partnership to support the regeneration of Gainsborough.
The news was announced in the council’s budget report, submitted to the meeting of Full Council on Monday, 6th March 2017.
The investment supports the vision the authority has for West Lindsey to be seen as a place where people want to live, work, invest and visit.
Significant investment projects include:
- £5 million on the regeneration of Gainsborough
- £3 million on creating a Food Enterprise Zone, to help unlock the potential of local food and farming businesses, boost the local economy and attract more investment
- £1.4 million to deliver the housing strategy, including bringing empty homes across the district back into use
- Almost £3 million on supporting residents across the district with Disabled facilities Grant to help them stay at home longer
- £15 million Commercial Property Investment
The budget announcement demonstrates the Council is committed to delivering our corporate priorities against reducing government funding by achieving new income streams from our capital investments and savings from our revenue budget. Cllr. Jeff Summers, Conservative Leader of West Lindsey District Council said:
“Committing our own funds to these transformational projects, demonstrates to potential investors that we are serious about our plans and that we are in for the long haul
“I am pleased the council has approved the budget because in order to both protect services and provide value for money for residents, the council needs to encourage economic growth.
“We estimate our investment plan to bring approximately £100m of inward investment to the district over the next 5 to 10 years.
“Our role as the district council is to provide services that our residents want. However, with reduced grants we still need to be creative in how we fund this, which is why we will continue to develop our commercial offer. There are exciting times ahead. Successful delivery of this programme has the potential to deliver £0.9 million of revenue benefit.”
The outcome of the local government financial settlement for 2017/18, the comprehensive spending Review and Rural Service Delivery Grant, means the Council needs to make further reductions in its net expenditure, of about £1.2m over the next two years.
The Council has plans in place to meet this funding gap through commercial investments and transformational projects.
Over the last four years West Lindsey has reduced its expenditure by £4.4m and held Council Tax in three out of the last five years whilst still providing award winning services to local residents. Council Tax for 2017/18 will rise by 2.52 per cent, which is just the third increase in the last seven years. This equates to less than 10p per week for residents on a band D property.
The budget presented by the Council's ruling Conservative Group received the cross party support with both Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors voting to support the budget. Only two councillors voted against the budget whilst the majority of the Liberal Democrats simply abstained.