Council budget 2024 to 2025

There has been a long-term lack of government investment in local services. 

This means the amount of money we spent between April 2024 and April 2025 was 40% less in real terms than it was in 2010.

Demand for many services has increased. This is especially true for some of the most important and costly services, such as providing social care for adults and tackling homelessness.

This means we have to spend more of our funding on these services.

The cost of providing all our services has also risen as a result of periods of very high inflation since 2020.

We need to change some of the services we currently offer our residents to make essential savings.

We will have to make difficult decisions about where we can reduce some services. We will base these decisions on factors such as demand for services and our legal obligations.

We will make choices carefully. We will protect vital services for the most vulnerable residents and consider how changes affect everyone in Hackney.

We will continue to invest in a better Hackney. We will focus on investment that helps save money in the long-term.

For example, we will develop our own temporary accommodation for people without somewhere to live. This will reduce our reliance on expensive privately managed accommodation such as hostels.

We will make some of the savings needed by working more efficiently. This includes:

• bringing services currently commissioned externally in-house
• increasing Council Tax for owners of empty homes and second properties
• looking for opportunities to generate income from our work

We agreed a balanced budget for 2024 to 2025, including £22m in savings from the previous year. See A better Hackney in tough times: ambitious new Council budget agreed.

The latest financial figures showed we were predicted to overspend by more than £38m between 2024 and 2025 (PDF 265kb). For more information, see “Be prepared to see reduced investment” Council warns.

We agreed to make almost £13m in savings. This was the first of 3 phases of savings we needed to deliver between 2025 and 2028. See August OFP Appendix 4 – Phase 1 Savings Narrative for OFP report to October Cabinet (PDF 149kb).

The latest figures show that we need to save £67m between 2025 and 2028.

Our funding from the government for 2024 to 2025 is confirmed.

We plan to agree to more savings.