Big challenges still lie ahead, says Leicestershire County Council as it reveals its latest budget proposals.
Published today, the four-year plan shows that savings of £54m need to be made by 2022.
It sets out details for £36m of these – including reviewing the council’s ‘early help’ and prevention services, reducing adult social care costs, and generating more income - and initial proposals for the remaining £18m.
Rising demand means that the council is planning to earmark an extra £17m for children’s social care, and inject another £10m into adult social care.
The proposals also include:
• generating £3.5m by providing services to other organisations, and from property investments – this income reduces the impact of reduced national funding;
• spending £290m on roads, schools, broadband and more, supporting new homes and boosting the local economy- this is funded by one-off government grants and land and property sales;
• raising Council Tax by 3.99 per cent for two years – including two per cent for adult social care - and then by 1.99 per cent in 2020/21 and 2021/22;
Our financial position remains extremely challenging. By planning ahead, we’ve saved £178m since 2010 and reduced our budget shortfall. But growing service pressures and uncertainty about national funding mean that demand continues to outstrip income.
The council is now much leaner. And providing services to other organisations, investing in property and teaming up with partners on innovative bids is generating income which we plough back into services
But tough choices still loom large. This is exacerbated by chronic national underfunding, limiting our scope to make savings. That’s why we’re leading the charge for fair funding, and look forward to seeing the government’s plans.
Person:Councillor Byron Rhodes, county council deputy leader
The proposals will be discussed by the cabinet on Tuesday (12 December) – watch the webcast
Residents will be able to have their say during a consultation, set to run from 13 December to 21 January. A final decision on the budget will be taken at the county council meeting on 21 February.
View a video of the budget proposals
Examples of savings over the next four years – most of which were announced in previous years - include:
- £6.5m on children and family services, including recruiting more in-house foster carers and reviewing early help and prevention services;
- £8.7m by reducing adult and communities costs, including reviewing personal social care budgets and promoting independence;
- £7m on environment and transport services, including converting streetlights to LEDs, a new approach to road maintenance and bringing waste sites in-house;
- £5m by reviewing support services including HR, ICT and finance and generating more income.
Plans being developed to meet the remaining £18m target include:
- Developing the Home First service, to prevent hospital admissions and speed up discharge from hospital
- Reducing the cost of residential placements for adults by securing better contracts and exploring supported living
- Generating more income by increasing traded services and property investment
It is estimated that the savings would lead to the loss of 300 posts – managing vacancies means the number of compulsory redundancies is likely to be lower. Around 700 posts have gone over the last five years – the council has 4,700 full time equivalent posts (7,600, including maintained schools)
A 3.99 per cent rise would increase the county’s share of a band D bill by around £47 to £1,219 from April 2018.
View the full report on the budget proposals.
