The county council must save £26 million next year – the highest annual saving it has ever had to make.
The council warned that the public will see the impact on services, as it has to save £110 million over the course of this Parliament – following £103 million of cuts during the last one.
Key headlines for the next four years include:
- Total savings of £78 million will be required, including £26 million from April. The council has only identified £59 million, leaving £19 million still to be found. Identified savings include proposed cuts to bus subsidies, waste sites and public health work
- Efficiency savings of £27 million, including reductions in management and administration (£3 million) and better commissioning and procurement (£9 million)
- Growth of £41.3 million to meet rising demand, including adult social care (£23 million), children’s social care (£8 million) and waste (£2.4 million)
- Council Tax rises of 3.99 per cent per year, including a two per cent precept to support adult social care, which was introduced by the Government. The two per cent will not cover the council’s full costs for adult social care
- An estimated 500 full-time equivalent posts will go – 900 have gone over the last five years
" This is the most challenging budget that the council has faced for a generation. We were already the lowest funded county council – but now the funding formula is shifting even more money away from counties to cities and London boroughs, which hits us even harder. We’ll have to take tough decisions such as cuts to early help and public health services and rural bus subsidies, if we are to deliver the savings that we need – and next year will be very tough indeed.
Person:Deputy council leader, Councillor Byron Rhodes
The financial situation means that the council cannot afford to develop a mining museum at Snibston. It will explore ways of providing some public access to the scheduled ancient monument and museum collections stored on site and linking them with the country park.
The council’s ruling cabinet will discuss the draft budget at 2pm on Tuesday, January 12, before it is considered by scrutiny committees.
People can have their say on the proposals at http://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/budget from January 12 till midnight on January 25. The council’s cabinet will consider the consultation results when it finalises the budget proposals on February 5, before the full council takes a final decision on February 17.
Background:
Council prediction:
Before Christmas, the council predicted it might have to save as much as £130 million over this Parliament. This has now been reduced to £110 million, due to the Government’s decision to let councils raise an extra two per cent per year on Council Tax to contribute towards adult social care.
Savings:
The council must save £26 million in 2016/17, rising to a total of £78 million by 2019/20.
Government funding:
The council’s revenue support grant from the Government will fall from £56 million in 2015/16 to zero in 2019/20. The Government has stated that grants will be replaced by local control of business rate income but there is no clarity yet as to how that will affect the county council – and the Government has announced it will cut £2 million from the county’s business rates in 2019/20. Under the Government’s estimate of councils’ “spending power”, by 2019/20 Leicestershire will be £13 million per year worse off than neighbouring Northamptonshire, £55 million worse off than Oxfordshire and £163 million worse off than Islington.
The council’s response to the Government’s funding consultation is included in the cabinet report.
Budget:
The council’s provisional budget for 2016/17 is £344.6 million.
Council Tax:
A proposed rise of 3.99 per cent would increase the county council’s share of band D bills by £43.25 to £1,127.40 per year from April.
Four year savings, by department:
- Children and families: £8.7 million, including £1.4 million from remodelling early help services
- Adults and communities: £18.6 million, including £3.3 million from reviewing external contracts
- Public health: £3.6 million, including £1 million from stop smoking services – with more to follow when Government grant cuts are confirmed
- Environment and transport: £17 million, including £2 million from bus subsidies
- Chief executive’s: £2 million, including £300,000 from economic development funding to agencies
- Corporate resources: £8.4 million, including £2.4 million from property
The capital programme:
The capital programme pays for buildings, roads and equipment and is separate to the council’s main (revenue) budget. It is funded by Government grants for schools, roads and transport, land and property sales and the council’s earmarked funds. The council is proposing to spend £206 million on capital projects over the next four years, including work on schools and road schemes.