‘No stone being left unturned’ to keep finances in check
CITY COUNCIL LEADER HAS NOT RULED OUT AXING SERVICES TO CUT COSTS
NOTTINGHAM City Council has reported a first-quarter loss of £10.9 million across its core services and in the wholly-owned companies it runs – despite encouraging signs due to a raft of belt-tightening measures designed to avert the need for intervention by central government.
Across the 10 portfolios of services the council runs, seven were revealed at Tuesday’s Executive Board meeting to be at “adverse variance” to their budget forecast at the start of the financial year, meaning being in the red, due to higher-than-predicted costs or lower income returns.
A number of council services continued to be affected by repercussions from Covid in the first quarter of the financial year, the three months to the end of June, most notably the children and young people’s service, and highways, transport and cleaning services.
The budget of the children and young people’s portfolio has been affected by increased demand pressures above forecasts, to the tune of £4.4 million, while the income from parking services and other revenue streams was £2.7 million lower during the quarter than predicted. Elsewhere revenues to the council’s leisure, culture and schools budget were down, due largely to lower visitor numbers to the council-owned Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall. Overall the council’s wholly owned companies ran at a loss of £2.4 million in the quarter. These companies include property development firm Thomas Bow, Nottingham City Homes, and Enviroenergy - which is to be brought back ‘in house’ next year.
The Executive Board approved a series of further cost-saving measures including the establishment of an assets disposal policy to drop surplus property holdings, the adoption of further spending controls, and the transference of certain services between portfolios.
Speaking to the Post after the meeting, leader Councillor David Mellen said the council was leaving “no stone unturned” in its drive to reduce debt and spending, and did not rule out the possibility of dropping whole council services to cut costs.
He said: “The financial position remains challenging and, as a result, we have introduced some further financial restrictions, such as a temporary recruitment freeze, to bring our spending in line with what we had budgeted for.
“We remain committed to keeping our spending within our approved budget each year to manage our finances sustainably over the medium to long term, so we can provide value-for-money services that local people need.
“The report looks back at our position at the end of June this year and I’m pleased that action we’ve taken so far is already narrowing the gap.
“In our measures to look at where we might save money, the question of whether anyone else does that service or gives that service is a relevant question to the expenditure that we give. It will come out in our proposals.
“At the moment we’re at the stage of formulating what those proposals will be. No stone is being left unturned.”
The financial position remains challenging and, as a result, we have introduced some further financial restrictions.
Councillor David Mellen