THURROCK Council's Cabinet has recommended an increase in Council Tax with all additional funding being used for social care, environmental improvements and tackling anti-social behaviour.

Budget proposals approved by Cabinet on Wednesday evening (12 February) are for an increase of 1.49 per cent in general council tax and a 2 per cent increase in the social care precept having applied no council tax increase the previous financial year.

Introducing the budget proposal with a detailed speech (reported in full below) Cllr Shane Hebb, portfolio holder for finance, said: "Thanks to our innovative service reform, commercial and investment strategies Thurrock has been able to do something 97 per cent of other councils cannot and that is propose a below inflation Council Tax increase while continuing to invest in the services which are most important to our residents.

"Every single penny of the extra money raised will be spent on tackling anti-social behaviour, further improving social services and continuing with our environmental objective of improving the look and feel of our borough; making this a borough which is one all of us can be proud to live, work and grow in.

"Thurrock Council is in an enviable financial position. We have the lowest Council Tax in Essex and one of the best financial positions of any unitary authority in the country.

"Our investment strategy has brought in over £31m last year and we will receive £33m this year, money which we will use for the benefit of local residents while allowing us to improve services, keep council tax increases to a minimum and maintain a surplus of over £11m."

The budget will be set at full council on 26 February.

Thurrock Nub News presents Cllr Hebb's speech in full:

This is a budget for residents who want our streets to be safer; our communities greener; our air quality improved; and our mental health services enhanced.

This is a budget which seeks to ensure that our deserving elderly always have the right level of great-quality social care available.

This is a budget which will see this administration's aspirational plans for our future landscape continue to begin to move forward – new housing, leisure & tourism offer regeneration; new health-care facilities, new classrooms, infrastructure upgrades and seeks to resolve the Thurrock Problem - de-bottlenecking Lakeside.

This budget is for everyone who believes Thurrock's better days are to come.

This is a budget which ensures that the services that residents use, depend and want are in place for years to come.

Thanks to our innovative service reform, commercial and investment strategies, I can confirm Thurrock has a balanced budget across multiple years.

Tonight I am confirm that this council has:

• A 2020/21 projected budget surplus of £4.1m
• A 2021/22 projected surplus of £1.4m, and
• That 2022/23 is also projecting just being over balanced.

When we entered administration in 2016/17, this council was unclear how it was going to fund services the following year, and had less of a clue how it was going to account for the £30m deficit we also inherited.

We inherited an Environment department devoid of people; the tools and vehicles scrapped – literally a borough where people had to navigate knee-height grass left uncut.

Our roads plagued with the pot-hole curse.

A social services sector which needed improvement, and was £6m overspent.

Contrast that to now - Thurrock Council is in one of the best financial situations of any unitary authority.

Our Council Tax remains one of the lowest of all unitary authorities in the country while we make sure that frontline services are being given the right resources to achieve continued improvement, and fund services above and beyond the statutory minimum.

There are few councils that can say they have increased general fund reserves by nearly 40%, put £1m towards new police officers, £670,000 to tackle anti-social behaviour, £500,000 for mental health support in local schools and £12m total commitment into environmental improvements over and above the traditional level of services.

In order to protect today's services for tomorrow, we have to maintain our income – and make balance between the public will and the public need.

It is owing to our success of managing the Thurrock Council economy, that we can put forward what 97% of other council's cannot for 2020/21 – a modest, under-inflationary general tax increase of 1.49%, ring-fenced on what matters most – ensuring funding security and additional injections into fighting crime, further improving our social services, and continuing this administrations environmental objective of improving the look and feel of our borough; making this a borough which is one all of us can be proud to live, work and play in.

Rather than telling a story of what we cannot deliver, and that a maximum general tax increase still won't fund what we have to by law – residents who chose to live in this borough have a council which funds above and beyond. By keeping stock of our financial position, we can modulate our approach, and this under-inflation increase is what we are proposing for next year.

The council has also been able to benefit from our handling of the local authority economy, by investing to save; transforming social care services for children and adults that will result in better outcomes for our most vulnerable residents – but we cannot, and should not ignore, the pressures that both services continue to manage.

People would be hard pushed to find a social services professional arguing that demand avoidance is critical – that is, we need to continue to ensure independent, happy, and motivated lifestyles which seek to kick ailments such as Alzheimer's and dementia out well into the future. It is for that reason that this Cabinet are going to propose adopting the precept uplift for ASC, as offered by HMG, by 2%.

Colleagues – I move onto department spending. I am proud to further announce increases in department spending.

The benefits of a well-managed local authority economy is that we can focus spending increases on the areas which matter most:

Our Adults Housing and Health will have a 5% uplift in spending, and our

Our valued Environmental and Highways departments – who are responsible for pushing the environmental and highway standards we expect to see, will see a 4.25% in-year uplift.

And the good news doesn't stop there.

Owing to our financial position, of sustaining and building on what this council pays for in our community, I am pleased to announce following spending commitments by this council, for the residents of this borough, on what matters most:

• This council will continue to work with Roger Hirst, our PFCC, to fund additional police officers who will be focusing on street-side/based crime – we will be funding nearly £0.7m into increasing the headcount of the police, so that we have a total of 33 new officers across our borough. Our PM, Boris Johnson, has equally committed the requirement of a further 20,000 officers across our country, and we will continue to work with HMG and the PFCC in ensuring Thurrock gets its fair share.

• The safety and splendour of our town centres needs specific focus, to reanimate our town centres and ensure a pleasant night-time economy for those who live in Thurrock, and those coming to our borough to enjoy themselves. Part of that is ensuring our town centres are safe – I can confirm tonight that this council will be piloting a focused uplift in Enforcement Officers who will be charged with policing our high streets – and our parks/green spaces – to make sure that these are areas which draw people to them; rather than areas that people find themselves avoiding altogether. Our Youth Offending team will equally be expanded, building on the success of the current team – this is a spend of £0.6m, aimed purely and squarely at deterring crimes, and reducing re-offending rates even further.

• We will be injecting a further £0.6m into protecting our green-spaces from illegal and unsightly car parking; our pilot schemes in Ockendon and SLH were praised by many – retaining green spaces whilst increasing car parking facilities – and the Cabinet are seeking to roll-out further schemes in other areas of our borough.

• This council will be investing nearly 0.4m on its first steps in the fight back against poor air quality. We will embark on planting 1,000 new trees in areas of significant pollution, and will invest in cycling lanes and "switch off zones" to encourage modes of transport which do not leave a carbon footprint, and reduce idling car emissions in areas such as level crossings. The surveying of air quality which was announced last month will build further on this work, but this is an administration committed to creating a positive impact on this matter, so to leave Thurrock's residents with as little chance of contracting COPD in their later years.

• 2019 was a year of many things – and one of the most positive changes of 2019 was the mind-set evolution around mental health. Like health, everyone has an ever-changing mental-health – and no matter if your male or female – no matter where and what you do for a living – the fluidity of everyone's individual health is now far-more considered by wider society than ever before. That can only be a good thing. However, there remains a degree of slowness in identifying emerging MH concerns in the care sector – this Cabinet gave a commitment in the Summer of last year that we intended to invest to change this, to work to improve interception of emerging cases earlier on, to avoid detection only when at crisis – and this Cabinet tonight cements that commitment and puts half a million pound into that very objective.

• Lastly, anyone who can think back a few years, will know our borough identity and landscape is ever changing – with a number of changes for the better, and some, not so…

o Intu Lakeside has done wondrous things at regenerating our shopping, eating and leisure offer in Thurrock – residents of this borough now have the opportunity to enjoy bowling, arcades, trampolining and other pursuits in this borough, without migrating elsewhere.

o That cannot be said of our leisure and tourism industry – a river-front underutilised and under-invested in, and a sporting estate which needs significant regeneration to compete with outer-borough sporting offers, are causes for alarm and concern. Residents of this borough are migrating out of Thurrock to use leisure and tourism facilities seen as far superior than our own – this must be addressed; and will be addressed. The Cabinet are therefore beginning a piece of work to review our entire culture and leisure offering, and understand the gaps, so that we can innovate, regenerate, and frankly – keep Thurrock residents in-borough when using leisure services – indoor and outdoor. As a free-market economy sponsor, I believe the innovations borne from competition benefit the end-consumer – at the moment, in this market, we are so far outside the market that the competition need innovate no further. We need to encourage healthy competition – and to do that, we need to get back in the game – and that work starts now.

I move now onto our Capital Plan. Our current capital plan blends need and desire – that is that we need essential infrastructure upgrades, but also want the best experience when using those facilities also.

From one-end of this borough, to the other end, we have an infrastructure improvement plan which caters for drivers, businesses, train commuters, children, students, young-persons aspiring to live in their own home – these are projects already started and part-way through development.

• The widening of the A13;
• Purfleet Regeneration;
• Grays Town Centre and Underpass;
• Stanford-le-Hope Interchange; which has just had a much needed change of direction as per last Cabinet.
• Improvements to parks and open spaces;
• New educational facilities;
• The HRA Transforming Homes programme;
• HRA New Build Schemes;
• Highways infrastructure;
• Aveley Community Hub;
• Civic Office Development; and
• Improvements to the Linford Civic Amenity Site.

• We move into the first phases of Tilbury's new IMC
• The Tilbury Riverside Youth Centre is about to be assessed on whether a refurbishment or a full-replacement is needed; but the key message, is that a youth centre is coming to Tilbury in the coming years.
• There are plans by this administration to tackle further the HGV menace in Aveley, but installing infrastructure to prevent HGV's entering Aveley north-bound.
• There are new plans for blocks of flats in our borough to get mixed recycling facilities to assist in our reduced landfill deposit objectives
• Multi-million objectives for Coalhouse Fort, which if grant funding is awarded, will see this river-side asset invested in and made as welcoming and open as possible, building on the work of the volunteers who recently stepped away after so many years, and who of which, should be very proud of their work.
• Slab Replacement Programme – which will aim to resurface some pathways where the pathway slabs are lifting, in strategic areas

This budget is designed to be a budget to work on what matters most.

This is budget designed to ensure that the services that residents use and depend, are safe and invested-in further, for years to come.

This is a budget which embraces the free-market, aims to keep tax low enough to stimulate economic activity.

This budget is for everyone who believes Thurrock's better days are to come – a budget which answers how it will care for people, improve our place of living, working and playing, and how we can make this borough one which is prosperous and works for everyone.

I commend and propose this budget to Cabinet.