Council budget cuts even worse than forecast

Sep 2 2010 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

THE budget cuts facing West Lothian Council will be much deeper and last longer than expected, according to their head of finance.

The local authority were planning for £45 million worth of cuts over the next three years as they faced up to a potential 12 per cent reduction in real terms in the money they receive from the Scottish Government from 2011 to 2014.

However, following an assessment of the UK Emergency Budget set out by the new Conserative/Lib Dem government it has emerged the situation is even worse than forecast with the council having to make savings of around £60m over four years.

Exact figures will not be available until late November when the outcome of the Scottish spending review is published but the council’s Head of Finance and Estates, Donald Forrest, anticipates grant funding reductions equating to approximately an 18 per cent, in real terms, reduction over four years — equivalent to £58.6m.

Earlier this year the council released their Tough Choices consultation document which outlined recommendations for savings they could make.

As well as substantial job losses services are set to be cut and reduced while charges may be introduced for others.

In a meeting with the Council Executive this week Mr Forrest said the local authority had to look at making savings over and above those identified in the consultation document.

He said: “I think that our budgeting assumptions are highlighting a difficult outlook for the next four years. However, we would be hopeful that policy decisions at national level and the results of discussions at COSLA could produce proposals that will generate budget savings for the council.

“However, given the additional savings required for 2011/12, officers have been considering the scope for further budget reduction measures, over and above the service-led measures contained in the Tough Choices document.

“This has also involved quantifying the sums that could be saved from the modernisation programme and the corporate-led initiatives and also considering possible additional measures.”

Council leader Peter Johnston claimed nearly £20m worth of savings would have to be found from next year’s budget alone.

He said: “A £20 million budget cut for next year is the biggest ever challenge West Lothian Council have faced.

“To put this in perspective, until now the largest ever annual budget reduction the council have achieved has been £6 million — and then every penny of that £6m was able to be used by the council to fund alternative council priorities.

“This is a massive challenge and we are now ready to move into the next phase of our community consultation.”

The council leader said they would now begin to consider the alternative ideas to make cuts and savings raised by staff and members of the public so far.

Council officers have also been instructed to bring forward additional measures, including options for savings from training, recruitment and car usage to be considered.

The council leader also moved to cut privileges for councillors as he scrapped free coffee, tea and newspapers, which he estimated would save £4000 a year.

“Frankly, we cannot afford to leave any stone unturned as we search for savings,” Councillor Johnston added.

“This is exactly why, with immediate effect, the Executive decided to end the free provision of coffee, biscuits and newspapers to councillors’ offices.

“I accept that in the global scheme of things this produces a small saving but it does send out the right message and every pound saved is worthwhile.

“West Lothian Council were planning for a budget reduction of £45 million over three years — however we always anticipated that a new UK Government budget would have an impact.

“Given that we now expect to make savings over four years rather than three it is very sensible that we extend the scope of the Tough Choices consultation that we are currently undertaking and that on conclusion of the consultation, we particularly focus on the 2011/12 and 2012/13 budgets.

“I am convinced that by pulling together, as is genuinely happening during our community consultation process, our council and our community are providing the very best opportunity for West Lothian to face up to this unprecedented financial tsunami and come through to the other side in the healthiest possible condition to continue to deliver quality public services to meet the needs and aspirations of our community.”