Warwickshire announces £67 million savings target

Warwickshire County Council has announced a set of options it will consider to achieve savings of around £67 million by 2020.

Reductions in Government grants, inflation and demographic pressures mean the council must identify savings amounting to around £67 million by 2020. Council services had already been hit hard by the last round of cuts to government grants, which saw the need to save £92 million by 2018.

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Leader of the council, outlined the financial pressures facing the council and revealed the options prepared by officers to meet the challenges over the next three years.

These options will form the basis of a conversation with the public to find out what people value most, before the budget is set in February.

She said: “Everything we do is on behalf of and impacts on the people of Warwickshire and we need to have a conversation with people about their priorities, hopes and fears, challenges and ambitions.

“After this meeting, we will be going out to talk to people around the county, we want to open up a conversation with our communities – to talk about the scale of the issues we face, including opening up an online budget calculator which allows people to have a go at creating the council budget. We will also be talking to our staff about how this might affect them and how we can work together to deliver services differently in the future.

“In order to do this, we need to know what people value. By taking these difficult decisions and investing in the future, I am confident that we will meet this challenge and be successful in making Warwickshire the best it can be.”