‘Could be good, could be awful, you can’t really tell’: Councillor says ‘abstract’ Nottingham budget cuts consultation was too hard to understand

Cllr Georgia Power (Lab), the chair of the Nottingham health scrutiny committee
By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
An ‘abstract’ consultation over crucial Nottingham City Council budget cuts was “too difficult” for some city residents to understand, a councillor says.
The public survey on £10.78m in cuts and savings at the authority for the 12 months from April was held for four weeks across December and January.
The proposals come as part of the Labour-run council’s efforts to set a balanced budget under huge financial pressure.
In the online consultation, residents were asked about the council’s plans to “consolidate spans, layers and functions” to help it save more than £5m, as well as other proposals such as “reducing third party spend” and the “digital resident experience”.
During a Corporate Scrutiny Committee meeting on Wednesday (January 29), Cllr Georgia Power (Lab) said: “There were a million problems with the budget last year [set in 2024], but one thing it was is very easy to understand, people looked at it and thought ‘my library is closing’, ‘my youth centre is closing’.
“But you look at this one and it is really abstract.
“The first question on the consultation was; ‘do you agree or disagree the council should improve digital access through development of the website and digital forms for more efficient service delivery?’.
“I think that’s where the problem was with this consultation, it was too abstract and too difficult for people to understand regardless of what their language or literacy was.”
Cllr Linda Woodings (Lab), executive member for finance, said the authority had tried to change some of the wording so it could be better understood, but Cllr Power added: “I think it is more the context of it.
“What does that mean? It could be good, it could be awful, you can’t really tell.”
Councillors, including the meeting chair, Cllr Sam Gardiner (Lab), further raised concern finalised budget papers had not been presented to two previous scrutiny committee meetings towards the end of last year and the beginning of the new year.
He said: “Can we have an assurance the next financial year the budget setting process will be started sooner to allow full scrutiny.”
Cllr Neghat Khan (Lab), the leader of the council, added: “I can make that commitment and we will be changing that.”
During the meeting the council’s corporate director of finance, Stuart Fair, said the authority was on track to break even in the current year.
Its financial position for the next four years has also been improving, and its budget gap for the year beginning April 2025 has now fallen from £69m to £23.4m.
An overall total budget gap over the next four years has also been reduced from £172m to £56.8m.
However Mr Fair said council services and the city’s residents will continue to experience significant economic pressures, meaning the need for the authority’s services will continue to rise.
“That will mean a lot of residents will come to the council for help, it is likely pressures will increase on local authorities, not actually diminish,” he said.
He added he was “fairly optimistic” the proposed budget cuts, which include £17.9m to be delivered next year and £24m over the next four years, would help the council set a balanced budget each year going forward.
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