Creating employment opportunities for the young and maintaining vital services for vulnerable adults are key changes in the final budget proposals put forward by Bradford Council’s ruling Labour group.

In addition lower paid council workers will receive an extra £250 in their pay packets and the opening hours of libraries and household waste sites will not be cut, said Council leader Ian Greenwood.

He explained how the group wants to invest £4.5 million to support employment opportunities for young people in an effort to address high levels of youth unemployment – a critical issue facing the district.

And £4.2m of intended cuts through changes to adult social care services and Supporting People contracts, have been trimmed to £3.3m following concern that it would be a false economy, in particular decommissioning services which help those with multiple needs.

The extra cash has been found through savings targets elsewhere and from a contingency fund for a staff pay increase.

A series of extra capital investments are also included in the plan due to be unveiled in detail today at a meeting of the executive. These include:

£4.5m to start dealing with the £63m backlog of repairs at Council buildings

£3m to support the ongoing rationalisation of Council offices

£2.3m to build more affordable council housing subject to matching funding from the Homes and Communities Agency

and £1.6m for renewable energy generation at public buildings.

The changes follow consultation with taxpayers and reflect some of the key issues raised. It is now a £29m cuts package instead of the initial £31m level of savings proposed, but it is still expected to lead to hundreds of job cuts at the authority.

Coun Greenwood told the Telegraph & Argus: “The response to the consultation was actually very adult and sensible. We are not propping the budget up with a lot of one-off funding as we want to get to a situation where if we get in a certain amount, we are spending that certain amount on an ongoing basis.”

Key pledges that remain from the initial proposals include protecting certain services from cuts, such as the regeneration of the city centre and major towns, employment and skills, empty homes, school improvement and children’s centres. Savings of £4m across departments would affect the majority of services and include rationalising strategic support services.

A final decision will be taken on the budget next Thursday.