Council cuts will be ‘painful’ says leader

Buckinghamshire Council cuts ‘will be painful’, its leader has admitted as several services are set to be slashed.

Cllr Martin Tett made the comments as his cabinet approved the council’s budget for the next three years on Tuesday, pending its approval by full council next week.

As part of its budget, the unitary authority plans to make a further £95m of savings and income by the spring of 2027.

This is on top of the £75m of savings that the council is ‘on track’ to deliver from its creation in 2020 to the end of the 2023/24 financial year.

Cllr Tett told a meeting of the cabinet that he would be ‘frank’ with them and the public about the financial pressures of setting the budget.

He said: “This is going to be to be a really difficult task delivering those savings. They are very substantial.”

The leader added: “These are big, big chunks out of our budget. They will be painful, and they will be very difficult to deliver.”

The council had initially proposed to make some savings by cutting services like litter picking, weed spraying, clearing gullies and communication with residents.

However, some of these services have now been reinstated into the budget after the council received extra money from a central government pot of around £600m, primarily for social care.

Cllr Tett said he was ‘delighted’ that the extra cash had allowed the council to axe proposed cuts to litter and gully clearing and allowed it to abandon its planned reduction in the operating hours of household waste recycling centres.

The leader said that after significant lobbying, the council was also able to reintroduce at least one cycle of weed spraying back into the budget, although admitted that it really needed two or three cycles.

He said: “Overall, this a tough budget, it’s a realistic budget. It produces a balanced budget. That is a legal requirement.

“We are not like central government. We can’t run a deficit as a national government can do. We have to have our income and expenditure in balance.”

Despite some proposed cuts being reinstated, the council is still making savings in multiple areas including through investment in additional children’s homes to reduce the use of high-cost external placements and increase in foster carers.

There will also be reduced funding for community boards, as well as savings from business operations, HR, finance and IT, from efficiencies in home to school transport and by cutting council office space.

The budget cabinet has approved also includes a maximum increase of 4.99 per cent in the average Band D council tax.

This is made up of a 2.99 per cent increase in the basic element of council tax and a 2 per cent increase in the adult social care precept.

The pressure on the council’s budget comes as authorities across the country face rising costs, complexity and demand for the delivery of four key services.

These are adult and children’s social care, temporary accommodation and home to school transport, especially for children with education, health and care plans (EHCPs).