Nottinghamshire County Council has made significant progress in
reducing its budget deficit over the last two years, but with on-going
reductions in Government funding, combined with spiraling demand for
social care services, councillors are warning that tough decisions still
lie ahead.
Since 2017, the County Council has secured £26.8m in new savings,
helping to almost halve its projected four-year budget gap to £33.9m
(down from £63.9m). This is despite facing cost pressures of nearly £70m
over the same period, due mainly to an ever-increasing number of people
needing children’s social care and adult social care services.
Government funding is also reducing. By 2020/21, the County Council
will be receiving less than half the Government funding it did in
2012/13 and its main source of funding, the Revenue Support Grant, will
cease all together.
The Council’s Finance and Major Contracts Committee will consider the
financial position and proposals for its 2019/20 budget when it meets
on Monday 11 February.
The initial proposals include a recommendation to increase Council
Tax by just under 3% and the Adult Social Care precept by 1%, leading to
an average increase of 97p per week for Nottinghamshire households.
A final decision on the budget proposals, council tax and social care levy will be taken at Full Council on 28 February.
Councillor Richard Jackson, Chairman of Finance and Major Contracts
Committee at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “We’ve made
significant progress in reducing the budget deficit we inherited when
taking office in 2017 but it is fair to say that making savings is
getting tougher each year – and will continue to do so.
“Regrettably, it appears that we will have no choice other than to
increase Council Tax overall by 3.99% for next year as we’re caught
between having less money from government and needing to spend a greater
proportion of what’s left on life-and-death social care services.
Reductions to some of our discretionary functions –often the most
popular, highly-valued services we provide – are now inevitable, unless
significant savings can be made elsewhere, such as reshaping our
relationship with district and borough councils or removing a tier of
local government all together.”
The report also sets out the County Council’s £116m capital programme
for 2019/20, including a new school in Hucknall, a new special school
and day care facility in Newark, flood protection in Southwell,
superfast broadband, upgrading street lights and a £1m investment at the
Mill Adventure Base in Ashfield.
2019/20 will be the second year of a four-year, extra £20m investment
in upgrading roads across the county. This includes investment in new
machinery, significantly improving the quality and quantity of road
repairs.
Councillor Jackson added: “Reducing our year-on-year running costs is
the norm, but it does not prevent us from making capital investments in
the county’s infrastructure. Investing in new LED street lighting and
heating systems in schools actually helps us reduce running costs and
the money we are committing to build new schools, broadband and roads
will benefit us in years to come – improving educational outcomes for
our children and attracting new businesses to create more and better
jobs when they are older.”
The Finance and Major Contracts Management Committee agenda, including the 2019/20 budget reports are available to download from the County Council’s website.
