Is this ‘smoke and mirrors’?
Royal Borough: Criticism of council's draft budget
Opposition parties have called the council’s draft budget ‘smoke and mirrors’ and ‘a holding budget’ that does not set out enough detail in how to solve the borough’s problems.
Leader of the local independents, Cllr Lynne Jones raised concerns that the council’s budget is too reliant on assumed Government grants.
In the council’s draft budget, £3million of central Government grant funding available to local authorities is considered as a potential income for the borough.
But Cllr Jones noted that the council may not get all £3million of this – because it is already receiving another Government grant, targeted at supporting councils with a lower-than-average income.
Without that grant, she said, the council may not have a balanced budget, as the administration claims.
“This is a holding budget. There’s a lot of assumptions and a lot of unknowns in here,” Cllr Jones said. “We don’t know whether we will get a balanced budget yet, and we won’t know until December.
“We’re not in control of our own finances – we would need £3million more in reserves for that.”
Leader of the council Andrew Johnson said: “We’re
still awaiting precise details (on grants). The budget does have the potential to change.
“If we didn’t get any additional finance, we would have to consider other options.”
Cllr Jones also raised concerns about some of the proposed savings in the draft budget.
Some of the savings are ‘reviews of resources’, including within the communities sector. Cllr Jones said this ‘raises some red flags.’
“(With these reviews) it isn’t a case of ‘we’ve found some savings,’ it’s a case of ‘we’re looking to find some savings’,” she said.
In response, Cllr Johnson said: “Some of this will involve restructures but we’re not looking to reduce headcount – I can say that with certainty.”
Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Cllr Simon Werner, echoed Cllr Jones’ concerns, adding that ‘review’ was ‘a spin word’ that is likely to end up meaning cuts to services.
He called the budget ‘smoke and mirrors’, raising concerns that there is not enough movement planned towards insourcing council services – even though it is planning some insourcing, predicted to save £65,000.
“There’s a huge amount they could be doing – the highways contract is up for renewal, but I see nothing to say they will be insourcing that, which they should be looking at strongly,” Cllr Werner said.
He criticised the Borough’s financial commitment to tackling climate change.
“£250,000 for a bit of admin support isn’t going to make much difference,” he said. “There needs to be far more ambition. This is a donothing budget.”
Cllr Werner also repeated his concerns that the budget’s affordable housing commitment did not go far enough and that more social housing is needed.
“Eighty per cent of market value is not affordable. Half a million pounds is not ‘affordable’. This is yet another spin word,” he said.
Cabinet member Stuart Carroll said in response: “I find it bizarre that the opposition would say, ‘It will be expensive anyway, so why bother?’
“We can’t be pessimistic. There’s a range of options and Government schemes.”