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Fighting Bournemouth's Corner

Statement from Bournemouth Borough Council in response to the Comprehensive Spending Review. "This really is disappointing for Bournemouth. It seems that national Government has not recognised the great strides that many local authorities, ourselves included, have already made in reducing our budgets, and has chosen to penalise us even further.'

Councillor John Beesley, portfolio holder for Resources and Deputy Leader of the Council said:

'Members and officers have been working hard for three years to work much more efficiently and reduce expenditure, but nevertheless, the next few years will undoubtedly be very testing times. Our budget projections for 2011/12 onwards have been based on a 25% reduction spread over four years – a dire forecast in itself – and today’s announcement suggests that the situation is even worse than that, with a disproportionate burden being passed to a local level. It is difficult to imagine a more challenging position.”

Councillor Peter Charon, Leader of the Council said:

“Now that we have clarity over the level of reduction and how it will be spread across the next four years, we can begin to plan in detail the exact reductions we must find each year. It would not be right to consider how these budget savings might be achieved without the benefit of the results of the public consultation we undertook during September and October this year. Protecting vulnerable children and adults will remain a priority, but until the consultation results give us clarity over the relative value that local people place on other services, we can only provisionally begin to consider how we will prioritise our service delivery in future years.

“We will not be on the back foot in responding to today’s announcement. On Friday (22nd October) Cllr Beesley and myself are meeting with Eric Pickles and his team in London to fight Bournemouth’s corner. In particular we will be pressing for more details on how the Government is proposing to allocate grants to those local authorities such as ourselves who have traditionally been very poorly funded. We will be doing all we can to make sure that Bournemouth gets a fair deal in future, something that is now more important than ever.

“When we meet with Eric Pickles, we will be addressing a number of points. In addition to pressing for a fairer system of funding for councils like Bournemouth, with a particularly strong visitor population, we will be wanting to know how the Government is proposing to help councils achieve a 0% Council Tax increase next year. We are naturally keen to deliver this for Bournemouth’s residents, but need the Government to tell us what support they intend to give, in a climate where the need to raise additional funds is greater than ever. We will also be looking for evidence that the Minister has backed Local Government’s cause and worked hard to get us a fair deal for local and vulnerable people, in particular as we face additional responsibilities for the care of older people, through the Social Care White Paper. Of course, we want to provide the best possible care for each and every person in our society, but the funding made available already doesn’t come close to being sufficient, so it’s essential that we push the Government now on how they intend to fund any future additional responsibilities.”

Cllr John Beesley, Cabinet Member for Resources, added:

“The residents of Bournemouth rightly expect strong financial management and that is what we have been delivering over the past three years. Remember, we have already saved £7.7 million this year and a further £7.3 million for 2011/12. By 2014/15 we expect Bournemouth to be receiving £22million a year less from the Government in grant income than we are now. Consequently, we know we will need to make further savings in future years, and officers will be doing urgent work to establish the impact of today’s announcement on our Medium Term Financial Plan. The results of our recent public consultation are going to be key in that work going forward.

“At the same time, the Council needs to concentrate on continuing to provide good quality frontline services and that is exactly what we are doing. Against an unprecedented reduction in government funding, residents want to be as sure as they can be that services will continue without large increases in Council Tax. Indeed we have been working flat out to keep increases in Council Tax as low as possible over the past three years with the aim of meeting the Government’s current target, which would mean no increase at all next year.

“Over a five year period from 2007 to 2012 we shall have made efficiency and other savings of well in excess of £25m without significant reductions to services, whilst absorbing large increases in the cost of services for older people and vulnerable children as well as weathering the effects of the recession on our many trading operations.

“However, we have also strengthened the Council’s reserves and have had them thoroughly risk assessed to ensure that they are both prudent and necessary. All Councils are facing severe funding issues and will have to address significant budget pressures over the next few years. Bournemouth Council’s prudent approach of holding money back for the even harder times ahead is the right one and will allow us to try to minimise the effects of the government’s austerity programme whilst we continue to squeeze further efficiencies and savings out of our reduced budgets.

“Our capital finances are lower than we would like because of the current economic climate, yet we plan to use every opportunity to ensure that we target that money as wisely as possible for the long-term benefit of Bournemouth and its residents.”

By Sandy Young

Posted: Thursday 21 October 2010

Permalink: http://www.bournemouth2026.org/comprehensivespendingreview

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