Consequences of decreasing the budget for Adult social care by 10%

This reduction means there would be significant risk that inappropriate or insufficient care is arranged to support the needs of residents and the Council would be unlikely to meet its legal duties in providing care.  We would have to reduce even more of our services, providing just the minimum level of support.  We would be unable to meet requests from providers to increase fee levels, meaning that people may not be able to access the care and support they want. Some care providers may stop working with us. Waiting times for assessment would significantly increase putting more pressure on families and potentially leading to increased admissions to hospital. 

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Adult social care by 5%

We would have to reduce some of our preventative services, such as our information service, and reduce the amount of options for care and support.  We would not be able to recruit to posts when they become vacant which would increase the amount of time that people are waiting for a service.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Adult social care the same

There would be no change to services.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Adult social care by 5%

This investment means we could provide more support to people earlier, before their needs get worse, to help them achieve better outcomes and live well and safely in their own homes or in specialist housing.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Strategic housing and temporary accommodation by 10%

We would not be able to deliver our statutory services and would be in breach of our legal duties.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Strategic housing and temporary accommodation by 5%

All statutory services would be delivered but we would have to reduce the amount of preventative services we could provide. This means that the number of rough sleepers could increase putting pressure on other services and the community voluntary faith sector.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Strategic housing and temporary accommodation the same

Statutory Services would be fully delivered, the winter shelter is provided and rough sleepers are fully supported on the streets. Even with no change there is currently an overspend as the cost of living is having an impact on households.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Strategic housing and temporary accommodation by 5%

Increasing the budget by 5% would enable us to make more investment in preventative services. This means we could provide a winter shelter and we could proactively work to reduce the number of people sleeping rough and support them to access rehabilitation. Further investment could be made into prevention to enable us to work with households before they become homeless.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Museum Service by 10%

We would have to increase admission and event charges and significantly reduce services. This would likely mean much shorter opening hours, and the cancellation of community activities. These changes would limit our reach and make it difficult to maintain meaningful community engagement and fulfil our wider mission.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Museum Service by 5%

A 5% budget reduction would make it challenging to deliver both the capital project and the wider service mission effectively. We would need to make difficult choices, potentially scaling back some community engagement initiatives and prioritising essential activities. While we remain committed to our mission, reduced funding would limit our capacity to fully realise our goals for the museum’s redevelopment and community impact.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Museum Service the same

With a steady budget, we can still improve our museum service by focusing on meaningful community engagement within our current resources. This could involve prioritising community-led activities. While our capacity for expansion may be limited, we are committed to maximising our impact through creative use of our existing resources and strengthening connections with the community.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Museum Service by 5%

We could enhance our museum service by engaging more deeply with communities through providing more impactful community programmes.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Talk Community Programme by 10%

A 10% reduction would require us to reduce staff, significantly limiting the support we could offer to community organisations and the voluntary sector. We would no longer be able to deliver the Household Support Fund. It would decrease our capacity to coordinate community action, maintain up-to-date resources on the Talk Community directory, and provide personalised support through Community Brokers.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Talk Community Programme by 5%

A 5% reduction would limit our ability to expand support for community organisations and the voluntary sector. This would also prevent us from diversifying into new areas or projects, affecting our ability to respond to emerging community needs.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Talk Community Programme the same

Maintaining the current budget would allow us to continue delivering the current level of service, supporting residents through existing hubs, community networks, and key funding programs. 

Consequences of increasing the budget for Talk Community Programme by 5%

With additional funding, we could strengthen our focus on enabling communities for upstream prevention, working collaboratively to help residents achieve healthier lifestyles and create a healthier environment. Investment in the Talk Community Directory would make it easier to navigate, empowering residents to self-support by accessing essential information and resources.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Public health by 10%

Cutting public health funding by 10% would severely impact the provision of prevention and early help services leading to increased demand for adult social care, children’s early help, and wider health services. Longer term health outcomes for residents would be significantly impacted.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Public health by 5%

Many indicators of our health are already becoming worse, from life expectancy and healthy life expectancy to obesity and mental health. This, in turn, increases costs and demands for adult social care, children's social care and health services. A 5% reduction would limit the availability of services we could offer and the health and wellbeing of residents would worsen as a result.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Public health the same

This would lead not to standing still, but to a reduction in current services as there are inflationary pressures on all Public Health services. The quality, safety and capacity of our public health services such as children’s health/health visiting, drug and alcohol support and sexual health services would start to be compromised and difficult choices would need to be made.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Public health by 5%

Increased spending on Public Health would allow us to invest in more services and interventions to maintain and improve our residents' health and wellbeing. We would be able to do more prevention and early help work which would reduce needs and the prevalence of diseases, such as cancer, stroke and heart disease. 

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Children's social care services by 10%

We would have to reduce even more staff and services, which would mean very limited support for children and families who need social care. This could mean we wouldn’t meet our legal responsibilities and the risk of harm and neglect could increase a lot. There would be more pressure on foster carers, adoptive parents and care homes. The quality and standards of the service would be compromised.

Reducing prevention services could mean more children going into care, and less support may mean there are not enough foster carers or residential carers to look after them.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Children's social care services by 5%

We would have to reduce some staff and services, which would mean less support for families, children and young people who need social care. This could mean we wouldn’t meet our legal responsibilities and could increase the risk of harm and neglect. Less support would be available for foster carers, adoptive parents and other guardians. The quality and standards of the service may suffer.

Reducing prevention services could mean more children going into care but we could not guarantee there would be enough foster carers or residential care to look after them.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Children's social care services the same

We could continue to provide our current level of service.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Children's social care services by 5%

We could provide better support at the right time to families, children and young people who need social care who need help so they can achieve better outcomes. Investing in prevention services could mean fewer children going into care.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Education, skills and learning by 10%

We would have to reduce even more staff and services, which would mean very limited support for families, children and young people who need help. This could greatly increase the risk of harm and neglect and lead to even more demand and cost for children's social care.

We would have to reduce even more of our services, such as the oversight of home-schooling, support to improve schools, the school attendance service, and the post 16 support, and the support we offer to children with learning difficulties or social/emotional problems, and the non-statutory services. This could lead to more children being isolated and unsupported, dissatisfaction among school leaders, poor school outcomes, more children not attending school and more young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).  This could mean that many children and young people with SEN do not get the help they need and may find it harder to learn, socialise and develop skills to help them be more independent.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Education, skills and learning by 5%

We would have to reduce some of our services, such as the support we offer to schools for improvement, the school attendance service, SEN, post 16, and to children excluded from education, the funding for external services, and the non-statutory services.  This could lead to parents/carers and families being unhappy, to dissatisfaction among parent/carers and poor school outcomes, more children not attending school, and more young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), and could mean that some children and young people with SEN do not get the help they need, and may find it harder to learn, socialise and develop skills to help them be more independent.

However, numbers of children requiring support for special educational needs is increasing so by keeping the budget the same as it is now would in real terms be a reduction as the money would have to go further.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Education, skills and learning the same

We could continue to provide our current level of service.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Education, skills and learning by 5%

We could keep meeting our legal responsibilities and build better relationships with schools and families.

More children and young people could have the assessments they need, helping them to get the right support as soon as possible. By increasing the budget, we could keep pace with the growing numbers of children with additional needs. We would be able to offer more appropriate services, such as governor support/exclusion services, to meet our statutory obligations more robustly and support our schools more strongly. 

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Waste collection and disposal by 10%

We would have to increase the fees charged for some services, the household waste recycling centres would have even shorter opening hours and some would have to close. This would mean some people have to travel further to get rid of their rubbish and recycling.

We would also need to introduce stricter controls at household recycling centres to prevent the disposal of any recyclables in black bags, e.g introduce a ‘no black bags’ policy.

We would have to change our waste collection services to restrict the capacity of general rubbish collected in the black bins.

We would need to consider reintroducing landfill as the disposal option for non-recyclable waste which is not environmentally sustainable.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Waste collection and disposal by 5%

We would have to increase the fees charged for some services and reduce some services at the household waste recycling centres, like having shorter opening hours or closing sites.

We would also need to introduce stricter controls at household recycling centres to prevent the disposal of any recyclables in black bags, e.g introduce a ‘no black bags’ policy.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Waste collection and disposal the same

We could continue to provide our current level of services.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Waste collection and disposal by 5%

We could improve the service by increasing the recycling collected from homes such as small electrical items and batteries. We could facilitate an increase in the amount of items diverted for reuse and deliver an educational programme to encourage more people to reduce, repair, reuse and recycle waste.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Highways maintenance and street lighting by 10%

We would have to reduce all highways maintenance services and the quality of the repairs, only focusing on issues that cause significant safety concerns. Roads and paths would get much worse. There would be many more potholes and longer waiting times for repairs. 

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Highways maintenance and street lighting by 5%

We would have to reduce our staff and the amount of routine maintenance work that we undertake, such as inspections, gulley clearing, cutting back vegetation and winter maintenance. The quality of our road and path surfaces would get worse more quickly and there would be more potholes. 

Consequences of keeping the budget for Highways maintenance and street lighting the same

We would have to reduce the amount of work that we can deliver in a year. Non-critical/Non-urgent safety work would take longer for us to deliver.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Highways maintenance and street lighting by 5%

We could cover the increase in costs we face due to inflation associated with the cost of materials and fuel and continue to provide our current level of service.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Transportation by 10%

We would fail to deliver our statutory duties e.g. Local Transport Plan, transporting eligible children to school. There would less buses on the roads.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Transportation by 5%

There would be a negative impact on delivery of our statutory duties e.g. Local Transport Plan, transporting eligible children to school. There would less buses on the roads. We will have less access to central government funding. 

Consequences of keeping the budget for Transportation the same

We could do less, as inflation and bus operator costs rise annually. Increasing demand on transport services will mean less money to support bus operators.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Transportation by 5%

We could improve the bus services: frequency and reliability. Better promotion of bus services/new routes/offers. Much improved bus information for passengers.

Greater ability to access substantial Central Government funding through clear strategic direction for public and active transport.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Home to school and SEND transport by 10%

Inability to deliver statutory duties, leading to school non-attendance, and multiple court cases for failure to meet statutory obligations. 

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Home to school and SEND transport by 5%

There would be a negative impact on delivery of statutory duties, leading to potential judicial issues.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Home to school and SEND transport the same

We would continue to overspend on SEND and HTS transport costs. These are statutory duties we have to deliver.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Home to school and SEND transport by 5%

Ability to improve the service; using new technology, AI learning, process improvement, fleet development; being less reliant on external contractors.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Economy and Growth including strategic planning by 10%

Economic Development – We would have to reduce our support for local businesses even further and cut back on plans to actively promote Herefordshire for inward investment. This would mean:

• mean less businesses would be supported
• local businesses would be less likely to receive funding to grow and employ more staff
• less business rates from new businesses, so more council tax burden on householders.

Environmental Health - would see significant reduction in service levels, focusing only on statutory requirements. This could mean fewer routine food safety and reactive housing inspections, increasing risks of undetected issues. Non-critical environmental health concerns, such as minor noise complaints, may go unaddressed, leading to reduced quality of life in affected areas.

Trading Standards – there would be minimal enforcement outside of essential areas, such as only responding to high-risk consumer fraud cases. Regular business support, proactive counterfeit product investigations, and routine underage sales checks would be stopped completely, increasing consumer exposure to unsafe products and fraud.

We would have to reduce our services and our number of staff. We would have to significantly increase fees and charges and consider scaling back statutory duty interventions. 

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Economy and Growth including strategic planning by 5%

Economic Development – a reduction in support for our local businesses;

Environmental Health - would have reduced ability to address lower-priority complaints, such as minor noise or odour nuisances. This would also slow response times for non-critical housing inspections, possibly increasing risks for residents in moderately substandard housing.

Trading Standards - would decrease the frequency of product safety checks and underage sales tests. For instance, fewer test purchases for age-restricted products might lead to increased sales of alcohol or tobacco to minors. Support for tackling organised crime and counterfeit goods may also be limited, impacting consumer protection.

We would have to increase fees and charges to keep the service the same as it is now.

We would need to stop all areas of work where there is not a legal duty on the council to do it.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Economy and Growth including strategic planning the same

Economic Development – continue to provide our current level of service;

Environmental Health – maintain current service levels, with essential inspections and regulatory activities but limited capacity for proactive measures. This means continuing to respond to complaints and inspect high-risk areas but with restricted resources for preventive efforts.

Trading Standards – sustain core services like monitoring product safety, verifying weights and measures, and investigating significant consumer fraud. However, limited capacity for extensive advisory support to small businesses or proactive anti-counterfeit operations remains a challenge.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Economy and Growth including strategic planning by 5%

Economic Development - We could increase the amount of support for local businesses, including providing more training to meet gaps in employment skills and support apprenticeships;

Environmental Health - could enhance inspections for food safety, licensing, housing conditions, and water quality. For example, more frequent inspections and monitoring outside normal office hours would help address health, safety and welfare impacts across all intervention areas.

Trading Standards - could increase monitoring of product safety and underage sales, as well as expand efforts to tackle counterfeit goods. This would allow proactive operations to seize counterfeit items, reduce fraudulent business practices, and better support local businesses with compliance guidance.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Corporate Services by 10%

Services would be much slower, including people having to wait a lot longer to speak to the council or hear back from us.

It would take much longer for legal issues to be fixed, including issues that affect children’s and adult social care.

Very little IT support would mean we would be more likely to have problems with our computer systems and also be at greater risk of cyber attacks.

When looking after our buildings we could only focus on legal health and safety requirements, so they would develop other problems much more quickly. 

We would be able to do less transformational project work to improve customer experience, digital offer, accessibility of services and new service developments.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Corporate Services by 5%

Services would be slower, including people having to wait longer to speak to the council or hear back from us.

It would take longer for legal issues to be fixed, including issues that affect children’s and adult social care.

Less IT support would mean we would be more likely to have problems with our computer systems.

We couldn’t look after our buildings as well, so they would develop problems more quickly. 

We would be able to do less transformational project work to improve customer experience, digital offer, accessibility of services and new service developments.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Corporate Services the same

We could continue to provide our current level of service.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Corporate Services by 5%

We could improve our support services, making them better and quicker. This would mean a better experiences for people using our services, for example shorter waiting times to speak to or hear back from the council, legal issues being fixed quicker and buildings being better maintained.

We would be able to do more transformational project work to improve customer experience, digital offer, accessibility of services and new service developments.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Costs of administration by 10%

We would no longer be operating to statutory requirements and in breach of our legal duties.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Costs of administration by 5%

We would no longer be operating to statutory requirements and in breach of our legal duties.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Costs of administration the same

We would continue to operate central costs to statutory requirements and our legal duties.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Costs of administration by 5%

We could improve processes and speed up administration of Council Tax, Business Rates and Housing Benefit.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Car parking income by 10%

Reduced parking income, and hence dramatic increase in parking violations, which will cause widespread congestion issues, dangerous streets and dangerous parking; likelihood of increased Killed or seriously injured (KSIs) for pedestrians and other non-vehicle users in town and city. Impact on retailers, as vehicles are not moved out of parking spaces, thus other shoppers are hampered from accessing retail services, which will drive down spend.

Consequences of decreasing the budget for Car parking income by 5%

Reduced parking income and increase in parking violations, causing congestion and safety issues throughout the county.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Car parking income the same

Continue with the service as is; without capacity to improve.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Car parking income by 5%

There would be minimal impact on the service, as increased costs would be mostly offset by additional income by increasing parking tariffs.

Consequences of keeping the budget for Council Tax the same

Council tax would remain the same in 2025/26.  This would give no additional income for services.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Council Tax by 0.99%

This would mean people paying an additional £18.57 per year in council tax on a Band D property.

This would provide an additional £1.3 million of income to deliver services.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Council Tax by 1.99%

This would mean people paying an additional £37.33 per year in council tax on a Band D property.

This would provide an additional £2.7 million of income to deliver services.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Council Tax by 2.99%

This would mean people paying an additional £56.09 per year in council tax on a Band D property.

This would provide an additional £4.0 million of income to deliver services.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Council Tax by 3.99%

This would mean people paying an additional £74.84 per year in council tax on a Band D property.

This would provide an additional £5.4 million of income to deliver services.

Consequences of increasing the budget for Council Tax by 4.99%

This would mean people paying an additional £93.60 per year in council tax on a Band D property.

This would provide an additional £6.7 million of income to deliver services.