£9.6 million in budget savings to be discussed by Northamptonshire’s cabinet

Northamptonshire County Council’s Cabinet is set to approve starting consultation on budget savings totalling £9.6 million soon.

The authority has been facing a severe financial challenge due to an unprecedented demand for local services and reducing levels of central government funding.

Last month, the county council launched a campaign calling on the government to review the funding model for local authorities to better reflect today’s population and demand pressures.

The budget savings set to be discussed include a review of Northamptonshire libraries and exploring opportunities for increased community involvement, changing to the highways maintenance programme, a reduction in funding for Trading Standards and Corby children’s centres, and the removal of bus subsidies.

The proposals aim to meet five objectives, namely: to simplify the way services are delivered; to avoid demand that’s preventable; to strengthen commissioning processes; to reduce or stop discretionary services; and to make better use of the workforce and avoid agency or locum staff.

The proposals will also include savings achieved by converting children’s services agency workers into permanent staff, removing the empowering councillors fund and reducing consultancy spend.

Heather Smith, county council leader, said: “There is no denying that there are difficult decisions to be made, and the proposals we have before us will undoubtedly have an impact on local communities. Therefore, what we are looking to do with some of these proposals is gauge what role local communities themselves could have in the running of these services.

“Like all public sector organisations in Northamptonshire, we are finding it increasingly difficult to protect frontline services and, without an increase in government funding, we are faced with no choice but to review some of our discretionary services as we work to deliver a balanced budget.”

Robin Brown, county council cabinet member for finance, said: “By 2021, we expect to have delivered £0.5 billion in savings and efficiencies – and unfortunately, this still isn’t enough.

“Our financial pressures are exacerbated by the fact some of the government decisions affecting Northamptonshire are on hold, such as the future of social care funding, a review of business rate distribution and new bids for county unitary authority status.

“This is why we are asking for an urgent review of the government’s funding formula for local councils to ensure we get a fair deal for residents and put us in a stronger position to protect frontline services as much as possible going forwards.”