WELL folks, it’s that time of year again. Council tax. Everyone’s favourite topic….
Dorset Council is one of the top ten highest charging council tax collecting authorities in the country and we are extremely keen not to be!
So, we have been really focused on transforming our processes to save your money and have already saved £76 million since our formation in 2019.
The council proposes to increase council tax next year by just under two per cent and to levy the adult social care precept of two per cent.
This is less than the maximum five per cent increase outlined in the Government’s Spending Review in December 2022 and well under the current rate of inflation.
To give you a better idea of what this means in the real world, this increase would be equivalent to £1.41 extra a week for a Band D property.
But what do we spend your money on? And what are we doing to try to spend it wisely and save it where we can?

Our council’s total net budget for 2023-24 will be £348 million. We provide about 450 different services to just under 380,000 residents including social care, children’s services, waste and recycling, highways, parking, planning, housing, environment and culture – to name just a few!
Our proposals are in contrast with many other councils nationally, which face the prospect of cuts to services, such as library closures and reduction of road maintenance, to balance their budgets.
We aren’t doing that, in fact, we are working on improving those frontline services for you and with you.
Ideally, we wouldn’t increase council tax at all, but we have to make sure the services we provide you with are funded, and we’ve worked really hard to ensure that the rises in council tax are below other pressures that we know people are facing.
Importantly, in your council tax bill will be a breakdown of what your money is being spent on by the people you elected.
The budget setting process will complete in full council 14 February 6.30pm for final approval.

LAURA BEDDOW
Councillor for West Purbeck & Dorset Council cabinet member for cultrue, communities & customer service