COUNCIL spending in Central Bedfordshire came in almost £500k under budget last year despite grant reductions.
News of Central Beds Council’s positive financial outturn coincided with reports elsewhere on Tuesday’s executive meeting agenda that service performance is continuing to improve.
Joint work by the Community Safety Partnership led to serious acquisitive crime such as theft and robbery falling by 13 per cent.
The affordable housing target was also exceeded with 440 new homes created. Performance has risen in other key areas such as increasing the amount of council tax collected (almost 98 per cent), faster processing of benefit claims, paying suppliers on time and assessing the care needs of children, adults and their families.
Councillors also acknowledged achievements by the council’s Adult Care Service to recover from an ‘adequate’ rating to having its progress nationally recognised by the Towards Excellence in Adult Social Care Board.
Council leader Councillor James Jamieson said: “These improvements have taken place against a difficult economic background that not only restricts the finances available to the council but also increases demands on some services.
“The results reported to Executive reinforce our commitment to sound management of our finances and services in order to provide our residents with great services and great value.
“While recognising that there is still further to go, I’m delighted that there is a steady improvement in performance. We are in a good position to respond to the challenges ahead and continue on our improvement journey.”