How will you balance the budget?

Local public services are under significant and immediate financial pressure – the most challenging situation in a decade. Cheshire West and Chester Council face a significant funding gap and will need to make difficult decisions about local services to ensure we are being good stewards of public money.  How would you close the funding gap?  

• On the left-hand side of the screen, you will see a list of service areas and sources of income. Simply select each one to see the services that make up each area of the Council and the types of income there are. 
• You can select the 'i' beside each service or income source for an explanation about what the service covers.
• You can choose to increase or decrease spending for each service, by moving the slider to the left or the right.
• You can also choose to increase income sources to help balance the budget.

The £50million budget gap includes the cost of increased demand and inflation across services before any of the existing savings that the Council has planned.  The consequences presented in this priority simulator tool are indicative only.  Further work would be required to develop and assess the changes in services that would be required as a consequence of any budget changes.  

Your target is to reduce spending and/or increase income by £50million to balance the budget.

The list of service areas are: 

• Place-based
• Health and adult social care
• Children and families, and
• Council-wide services 

The sources of income are:

• Income
• Council tax, and
• Adult social care precept