Our Budget Consultation 2024 - 2025

To help guide our budget plans, we conducted a public consultation between Monday 30 October and Sunday 10 December. We gathered views on our priorities, vital services, where you'd spend or reduce money, and options to achieve a balance budget.

Thank you to everyone who took part.

• More than 3,300 residents, staff and partners responded.

• 68.2% of respondents agreed with Our Council Plan priorities for keeping people safe from vulnerable situations, a sustainable and prosperous economy, helping people and communities fulfil their potential and making best use of resources underpinned by the cross-cutting theme of protecting the environment.

• 37% of respondents disagreed with where the council spends its money, compared to 28% who agreed, 32% neither agreed or disagreed.

• The service area most commonly selected across all respondents for increased funding was highways and transport. More on our Better Roads programme.

• The service area most commonly selected to decrease funding was finance and property, followed by adults’ social care (including Public Health).

• Highways and transport, and fire and rescue and community support (including libraries) were areas least selected to decrease spending on.

• The services used the most by respondents over the last 12 months were waste services, such as household waste and recycling centres, followed by rights of way, footpaths, cycleways or country parks and libraries and archive services.

Feedback will be considered by our leadership team and at a meeting of our Cabinet on 30 January 2024.

Our budget proposals will then be put forward for a final decision at a full meeting of the County Council in February 2024.

Read latest news on our budget.

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[Survey now closed]
We continue to align our budget to deliver the council’s priorities.

However, we must make plans within the current financial pressures that we and many other local authorities continue to face.

Cost-of-living is being felt by everyone across the county. Our budget shortfall for 2024/25 is £44.9 million, and we are required by law to set a balanced budget. This means that we will have to make some difficult choices about what level of services we provide and how we deliver them.

As part of our planning we will be asking our partners and residents to comment on these plans as well as the priorities set out in Our Council Plan (opens in new window).

We want to hear what you think are the most vital services, where you’d spend or reduce money and what options you’d prefer us to make to achieve a balanced budget.

Have your say

To help guide our budget plans, we want to hear:

• what you think are the most vital services
• where you’d spend or reduce money
• which options you feel we should focus on to achieve a balanced budget.

Take part in our survey below, which is open from Monday 30 October 2023 until Sunday 10 December 2023.

What happens next?

Responses to this consultation survey and feedback from scrutiny committee chairman will be considered at an Executive Leadership Team meeting on 4 January 2023 and at a Public Cabinet meeting on 30 January 2024. Proposals will then be put forward for a final decision at Full Council (opens in new window) in February 2024.

Further information and alternate formats

If you require any of this information in an alternative format, then please contact us by phone 01243 777100 or via email at haveyoursay@westsussex.gov.uk and we will assist you. If you are deaf or hard of hearing and have an NGT texting app installed on your computer, laptop or smartphone, you can contact us on 18001 01243 777100.

For more information about the accessibility of this website, please see our Accessibility tab (opens in new window) at the foot of the page.