Video: our budget plans for 2023 to 2024

Published date

As Harlow’s Council Tax bills and housing rent letters will hit doormats any day now, Harlow Council has published a video to update residents on its budget plans for the year ahead.

This year Harlow Council will freeze its share of the Council Tax bill and invest millions to improve council homes and restore pride in the town.

What our budget means for you

Full video script

Councillor Russell Perrin, Leader of Harlow Council:

On 23 February 2023, Harlow Council approved a budget which freezes Harlow Council Tax and continues to invest hundreds of millions into regenerating our town.

Our budget invests your money into your priorities. It is a budget which will continue to make Harlow a better place to raise your family, to work, to live and to grow old. 

First, our budget freezes Harlow Council’s share of your Council Tax bill. We are the only council in Essex to freeze its share of the bill and we further plan to freeze our Council Tax up to 2026. This is because we will do everything we can to help you and your family with the cost of living. 

Second, our budget delivers £25m to improve the standard of our homes, giving priority to fixing roofs, damp and mould works, fire safety and energy efficiency works. This is all part of a £102m investment over five years to improve council housing.

Third, we are investing even more money into building new Council homes for Harlow families. Our housebuilding programme will now be delivered with further investment totalling £39m.

Fourth, it is because of our commitment to restoring pride in our estates and neighbourhoods that we will put a further £170,000 into our Estate Renewal Fund.

Fifth, the town's community services like pets’ corner, the playhouse, the museum, our town's splash parks and paddling pools, are loved by so many. So that is why we are continuing to invest more money into these popular services.

We are also investing £79 million into improving other facilities. This includes millions of government funding to improve your town centre with a new bus station, new arts and cultural quarter in Playhouse Square, and enhancements to Broad Walk. All part of one of the biggest programmes of regeneration this town has ever seen.

And finally, we are freezing charges in all council run car parks and keeping Essex County Council’s streetlights on in Harlow all night, every night.

We are doing all this with no cuts to the essential and popular services you love, and with no detrimental impact on the council’s future finances.

A Council Tax freeze from Harlow Council and hundreds of millions to continue regenerating our town. A budget that continues our job of investing your money into your priorities and making Harlow the best town in Britain.