York Council set to launch budget challenge video series

City of York Council is to publish a series of videos which lay out the scale of its financial challenge.

The Council’s Executive has already published budget proposals for 2024-25 – including what senior leaders describe as extremely challenging reductions – in order to deliver the council’s Medium-Term 4-year Financial Strategy. That will have serious impacts for York residents with services being reduced or stopped altogether, or service charges being introduced.

Councillor Katie Lomas Executive Member for Finance, Performance, Major Projects and Equalities said,

“No one wants to be in the position of making these decisions, but as one of the lowest funded Local Authorities we have very little room to make cuts that are required due to inadequate funding.

“It is vital that everyone affected by these sometimes extremely difficult proposals understands what they mean and the sheer scale of the challenge.

“We have already held a series of budget engagement events, both in person and online, to talk about the problems and proposals, and I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to be part of those and contribute to this important process.

“What we are seeking to do now is make sure that – across the city – the work we are doing, and its impacts are understood as widely as possible.”

The video series will begin on the Council’s Social media channels today, with a short video featuring Council Leader Claire Douglas. Further videos will be published online over the coming days, before publication of the full budget report for full council.