Council getting ready for ‘most difficult budget yet’
BRIDGEND Council’s leader says the local authority is planning for the worst-case scenario as it prepares to set the “most difficult budget yet” for the county.
Senior councillors warned last month that increasing financial pressures meant the council could be forced to close leisure centres, swimming pools and libraries, as well as ending full-time nursery education for three-year-olds, closing daycare services for frail older people and adults with significant learning disabilities, and removing school crossing patrols.
Speaking during an interview, council leader Huw David said: “We hope, and urge, the UK Government to properly fund Welsh Government and we hope, and urge, Welsh Government to fund the pressures we face next year.
“Historically, Bridgend has always been one of the first authorities in Wales to start setting their budget, which is why we are highlighting the issue now.
“We will be spending a lot of time, as much time as we need to, in the coming months, with senior management team and members talking about the budget and how we set that budget for the coming year.
“It’s going to be difficult, the most difficult budget we have set here in Bridgend.
“We try to plan for the worst-case scenario because it would be irresponsible of us not to do that.
“We hope it won’t become reality but there is a significant risk because of financial pressures.”
Councillor David said the local authority will not know until the winter how much funding it will receive from the Welsh Government.
He said: “There are a number of unknown factors that makes it very difficult for us.
“We don’t know how much we will have from Welsh Government and they don’t know how much money they will have from the UK Government.
“And that will have the biggest impact on our budget.
“We also don’t know if any of the pay awards will be funded by national government.
“If the teacher pay increases of 3% are not funded, for example, it will be very difficult and will lead to schools having to find the money by making more redundancies.
“We think it’s crucial we have an increase in funding from Welsh Government.
“If not, then we will be forced to take the type of decisions outlined last month.”
He added: “Even if we have an increase from Welsh Government, because of pay inflation, rising numbers of children in our schools, increasing numbers of elderly people and looked after children, we still have to make savings to balance the books.
“We plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
Bridgend Council, which is a medium-sized authority in Wales, has one of the smallest management teams and cabinets.
Cllr David said: “We recently made a the director of legal and regulatory services redundant and the head of human resources – that’s a further two posts gone from the organisation, which is a saving, but there’s a limit to that.
“We have made £40m savings in the last four to five years – they were genuine efficiency savings.
“We have got it as lean and as efficient as we can – where do we go next if we are going to make savings?”
It is predicted the council will have to make a further £30m of reductions by 2022-23 with £10m of savings to be made in 2019-20 alone.
“I think people understand that we have a huge amount of money to save and we cannot save another £30m just by ordering less stationery or cutting energy costs,” Cllr David said.
“I hope the community and residents understand it’s not a political choice and it’s not a choice of this council.
“It’s being imposed on us because our funding was cut last year and it’s due to be cut next year, and yet, we have got more services to be delivered to more vulnerable people and school children.”
The leisure centres in Bridgend county and the libraries are both run by charitable organisations.
In 2012, the social enterprise Halo leisure took over the day-to-day running of the leisure centres while Awen Cultural Trust runs the county’s libraries and various buildings such as the Pavilion in Porthcawl and Maesteg Town Hall.
However the council still owns the buildings.
Bridgend, Pencoed and Pyle’s libraries are all within leisure centres.
Cllr David says the agreements with Halo and Awen have extended the amount of time the services have been made available to residents.
As soon as Halo took over, the council saved an annual £250k from no longer having to pay commercial business rates.
As Halo is a social enterprise, it does not have to pay commercial rates which, once paid, are sent to Welsh Government which then reallocates them.
“We know how important services like leisure are in keeping people well and independent and this is the last place we want to be,” Cllr David said.
“I’d rather spend a couple of hundred pounds on keeping a person well than spending £20k-£30k on social care for them when they get really ill.
“We get 2,000 referrals from GPs a year – they refer patients to a leisure centre on an exercise referral scheme where there’s specialist staff to help them with their chronic conditions such as heart problems, diabetes or Parkinson’s.
“It’s a remarkably successful scheme and also reduces the risk of social isolation because while people are doing physical exercise, they’re meeting with other people and their carers have a break.
“Leisure centres are very different to what they were five to 10 years ago, they’re much more focused on helping people who have got significant health problems.
“We are saying there needs to be more funding for these type of things that can keep these services open.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said the cabinet secretary had “impressed” upon local authorities the need to prepare for tougher times and harder choices that lay ahead.
The spokesman said: “We are all having to work against a backdrop of austerity as a result of years of successive and severe cuts in funding from the UK Government.
“Despite this, we have taken action to protect local authorities in Wales and have also ensured that no local authority will have to manage on a reduction of more than 0.5% this year.”
A UK Treasury spokesman said: “The Welsh Government’s budget continues to increase every year for its spending, which includes local government.
“And we have given the Welsh Government tax raising powers so it can raise more money for its priorities.”