Council to tighten belt again
AS town hall bosses prepare to tighten their belts once again, the leader of Stockport Council says residents ‘need to understand the scale of what we are dealing with’.
The council has published its medium term financial plan – the second half of a two-year budget put in place when the Labour group took over last year – coming before a meeting of the cabinet due to be held last night (Tuesday, August 15).
In the past year savings have been made of around £12m, and in the next year the borough needs to save a further £18m.
It is expected that by 2020 the council will have to find another £50m of savings, as it will not receive funding from central government for anything other than education.
Council leader Alex Ganotis said: “Everything else will have to be locally funded through business rates and taxation.
“It is the most challenging financial situation in our history. Tough decisions will have to be taken – this is where it starts getting really challenging.
“People need to understand the scale of what we are dealing with. Local government has been hit harder than any other part of the public sector, and we are trying to minimise the impact of this on the front line and protect services for the most vulnerable.”
The town hall has come under criticism for having the highest council tax in Greater Manchester, and for schemes such as Stockport Together, which has merged health care with social services.
“People say it will lead to cuts, but it is to make sure the money we’ve got goes as far as possible,” Coun Ganotis said. “If we did not do this, we would have to take the money out of the existing services.
“We have to reform services and come up with new ways of working.”
Last year council tax rose by 4.99 per cent – the highest possible – and residents may see the same rise again this year.
“I recognise that we have a cost of living crisis, but it really is one of the few avenues open to us,”
Coun Ganotis said. “What we want is to make sure people are getting value for money from the council.”
The plans also include redundancies, and Coun Ganotis says the council’s single biggest cost is staff salaries.
“We have to be very up front about it,” he said. “We are not planning to launch anything until October, and we don’t want it to be a free-for-all.
“In terms of people we can let go, we want it to be voluntary. Between now and October we will look at where our remaining savings can come from, and then we will be able to propose what we want council tax to be.”
Coun Ganotis says Labour will be looking for cross-party support for the plans, and are ‘determined that Stockport will thrive and get through this’.
“We are not just sitting around saying how awful it is and how bad the government are,” he said. “We have to do what we can within Stockport to get through these challenges. It is what people elected us to do.”