Worthing budget consultation - Adur & Worthing Councils

Worthing Borough Council logo (large - left)

Our ambition is to make Worthing the greenest, fairest coastal town in the UK, with us and the community standing side by side to ensure everyone is supported and no one is left behind.

Fairness means addressing inequality. This has been a year where although the rising cost of living has caused problems for everyone, inequality has grown because the least well-off have been hit the hardest. Rising mortgage and rent bills have hit family budgets and cost some the roofs over their heads.

We’re determined that no one in our society should have to sleep rough but the result of this increased pressure on our top priority is that we are dealing with a dramatic increase in costs to find homes for all our residents.

It’s a big part of our budget. We have worked hard to make sure that the services you want and need continue to be there. But we will need to make difficult decisions going forward and we want to make them with you.

Legally, we have to produce a balanced budget each year - meaning we can only spend as much money as we take in through council tax, government grants, fees, charges and commercial income. We will continue to push for more government support to help fund our services, but we can only directly change the other sources of income we have.

It has been challenging this year and will be even more so in 2024 and 2025. We cannot continue to operate the same way we have in the past, but we also understand that just getting by has become so much more difficult for some of our citizens. We want to make the best decisions for our communities with the limited resources that we have.

We remain committed to listening before we make these decisions, so now we would like to know what you think. We’re setting our budget to do the things that you have told us are important to you - such as protecting vulnerable people, building council homes and addressing the climate emergency. Please take a few minutes to feed back by filling out the (anonymous) consultation below.

Many thanks as always,
Cllr Dr Beccy Cooper, Leader of Worthing Borough Council

The consultation closed on Tuesday 21st November 2023.

Thank you for taking part and submitting your comments.

We will add the results of the consultation here soon.

If you have a connection to Adur by living, working or studying there, you can also complete the Adur budget consultation.