Leicestershire County Council’s cabinet has finalised proposals to save £26.7 million next year and increase its share of Council Tax by 3.99 per cent.
The council is proposing to save £78.3 million over the next four years and still has to identify £19.5 million of that. A final decision will be taken by the full council on February 17.
Following years of savings, this is the toughest budget that the council has faced and services will be hit. I welcome the additional £6.6 million from the Government but we still face tough decisions. I hope the Government moves quickly to review the funding system, which is broken. It cannot be right that other counties receive millions more than Leicestershire each year.
Person:Councillor Byron Rhodes, the county council's deputy leader
Since the budget proposals were unveiled last month, the Government announced the county council would receive £3.3 million of transitional funding for each of the next two years.
This funding will not affect the council’s overall savings targets but will be used to:
Fund highways maintenance in 2016/17 (£3 million), including critical resurfacing and strengthening schemes, preventative maintenance and streetlighting column replacement work
Support additional demand and cost pressures for special educational needs transport (£300,000)
Reduce savings from the stop smoking service (£100,000)
Maintain the “tell us once” service, which enables bereaved people to inform all local and national agencies at the same time, when they register a death (£30,000)
Close a funding gap in the budget in 2017/18
Key headlines for the next four years include:
• Total savings of £78.3 million will be required, including £26.7 million from April. The council has only identified £58.8 million, leaving £19.5 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 £41.4 million to meet rising demand, including adult social care (£23 million), children’s social care (£8.9 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. Of those who responded to the council’s public consultation, 60 per cent supported a two per cent precept for adult social care and more than half supported a total rise of four per cent or more.
• An estimated 500 full-time equivalent posts will go – 900 have gone over the last five years
The full budget report and appendices are available here: . The council has saved £103 million over the last five year Parliament and is predicting it will have to save £110 million during this Parliament.