Liverpool Council is moving forward with plans to introduce a £40 annual charge for green bin collections - as well as a maximum Council Tax increase for city residents.
The council has published its final budget proposals for the 2022/23, which will be signed off at a cabinet meeting next week - before being voted on in next month's budget meeting.
The local authority had been expecting to have to save a further £34m but having taken into account the latest government settlement, that figure now stands at a still very substantial £24.5m.
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The local authority has already seen its funding reduced by around 65% since 2010 - wiping £465m from its coffers.
In order to find the latest savings, the council is proposing a number of cuts and measures.
One such measure will be to introduce a £40 annual charge for households who have green waste collections for garden waste.
It is hoped that this will raise an additional £1.7 million.
Details of how and when this will be introduced will be revealed in due course, with options being looked at to 'ease the burden' on more vulnerable households, including including paying in instalments and a hardship fund.
The council also intends to bring in the maximum increase in Council Tax from April - which is an overall rise of 2.99% on what Liverpool taxpayers currently pay.
This is made up of a 1.99% increase for general use and a ringfenced 1% rise to be spent only on the authority's struggling adult social care services.
Other budget measures include charging private landlords and social housing providers for pest control services - which could raise £200,000 - and saving a further £100,000 from managing demand within the council's school transport budget.
There will also be a review of high cost social care packages, which will aim to save nearly £2 million and a further £200,000 will be cut via a management restructure at the Cunard Building.
The authority intends to continue to provide its Council Tax Support Scheme, which it was will help 68,000 households facing a cost of living crisis.
There are no proposals to withdraw services from children's centres, leisure centres, council-run libraries or to remove local emergency support grants.
While this year's budget picture has improved somewhat, with the planned cuts reducing from £34m to £24.5m, the ECHO understands the council will still need to find roughly £50m in further cuts in the next two years.
A source said: "This may have bought us some brief respite, but there is still lots of pain to come in the next few years."
The Government’s one-off Council Tax rebate of £150 for properties in Council Tax Bands A-D to offset increased energy bills will be applied automatically. Details of a discretionary fund to help people who are on a low income and living in properties with Council Tax Bands E-H (who wouldn’t otherwise be eligible) will be included in bills.
Following consideration of the budget report, it will then be considered by a special joint meeting of the Finance and Resources Select Committee on Wednesday, 23 February and Audit and Governance Select Committee on Thursday, 24 February.
Mayor of Liverpool, Joanne Anderson, said: “This has been an extremely difficult process but I am confident we have come up with a set of proposals which protect the most vulnerable and our most cherished frontline services.
“Following consultation feedback, we are looking hard at how we can best mitigate the impact of the introduction of a fee for garden waste collection. This could include enabling people to pay in instalments and a financial hardship scheme.
“I am painfully aware of how difficult it is to ask people to pay more when they are already seeing other living costs rise, but the simple fact is that if we don’t do this then we would have to withdraw valuable services that are a lifeline for many.
“We are determined to find sustainable solutions to long-term problems, erode the disadvantage and inequality that exists in too many of our communities, and improve our neighbourhoods.”
Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, Councillor Jane Corbett, said: “Every proposal we have agreed has a consequence but we have worked as hard as possible to minimise the impact.
“These budget proposals protect Children’s Centres, Lifestyles leisure centres, our council-run libraries and our anti-poverty grants. And we’ve maintained the council tax support scheme which will provide help to tens of thousands of families.
“I would like to thank all those people who came forward and gave their feedback as part of the consultation process. We are determined to become an organisation that listens to our residents, and where possible alleviates the impact of these difficult decisions.”
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