2024 Big Conversation

The council delivers over 700 services to the people of Luton. These include services residents are accessing today and also those which are planning for the future of Luton. 

Luton 2040 is a vision the council shares with other public, private and voluntary sector organisations. 

It is a really ambitious vision and everything the council does is centred around it so we can build a healthy, fair, and sustainable town where everyone can thrive, and no one has to live in poverty. This would see Luton completely transformed. 

This transformation will be delivered through a number of areas ranging from giving young children the best start in life, delivering excellent education and creating well-paid jobs for our residents; to bringing investment into Luton, ensuring our air and environment are cleaner and our neighbourhoods are clean and tidy. And also ensuring that residents have access to services they need to keep them healthy. 

You can find out more about Luton 2040 at luton2040.co.uk.

We are confident that the Luton 2040 vision can be achieved, but we have to deliver services on limited funding and diminishing resources. 

In the past 14 years we have had more than £160 million taken out of our budget meaning drastic savings and cuts year-on-year. This has impacted people and the services we provide. 

In addition, growing demand for housing, adult social care and children’s services are causing us to come under huge financial strain. 

Despite this, we are still required by law to balance our budget and so we don’t spend more than we have; which means we are being forced into making decisions we wish we didn’t have to. 

It means we need to prioritise the services we provide. This is why we want to hear from you about what you think is most important. 

In 2024/25 the council received £604 million from multiple sources to spend on all of our 700+ services. The majority of this funding comes
from grants with the rest coming from council tax, business rates and commercial income we generate.

Service expenditure - 2024/25 budget £'m

Government grant for schools and education: £176.9 (29.3%)
Council Tax: £106.8 (17.7%)
Chargeable services and commercial income - £69.2 (11.4%)
Business Rates: £61.4 (10.2%)
Government grants for other specific services: £59.4 (9.8%)
Grant for housing benefits: £53.2 (8.8%)
Income from Luton Rising (council airport company): £46.0 (7.6%)
Grant for Public Health services: £17.1 (2.8%)
Government grant for other services: £14.7 (2.4%)
Total revenue resources: -£604.6 (100.0%)

The breakdown below shows the proportion of our spend across key areas.Service expenditure - 2024/25 budget £'m

Schools:  £176.9 (29.3%)
Adult Social Care: £105.2 (17.4%)
Children's Services and education: £101.8 (16.8%)
Housing Benefit support: £57.5 (9.5%)
Cultural, Environment, Planning, Economic Development: £47.9 (7.9%)
Corporate services: £31.5 (5.2%)
Highways, Property and Transport: £32.0 (5.3%)
Housing, including homelessness: £26.3 (4.4%)
Public Health: £17.0 (2.8%)
Other costs: £8.3 (1.4%)

Due to the rising demand and increasing pressures in areas such as housing and social care, even if we were to increase council tax again next year, we will still need to make further savings in order to balance our budget. 

We already need to find more than £5 million before the end of this year. 

We then estimate we will need to make a further £10.02 million in savings in 2025/26, then another £6.09 million 2026/27 and a further £4.76 million in 2027/28. 

This will be challenging because of the cuts we’ve already had to made and because of the increasing demand for our services. 

However, it may also mean we need to make some difficult decisions. 

This is why we want to hear how you would like us to prioritise our spending.