By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
People living in Nottingham have been urged to take part in a consultation over proposed cuts to jobs and services that councillors admit could “wreck the fabric of the city”.
In March this year the council approved a balanced four-year financial plan, however soaring costs and demand in adults and children’s social care, as well as a “a tide of homelessness”, have pushed the authority to a financial knife-edge.
The budget gap for 12 months beginning April 2024 currently sits around £53.7m, and a series of service closures and 554 full-time equivalent job cuts have been proposed in a bid to bring the deficit down.
Some savings are subject to public consultation, meaning residents will get the chance to have their say on some major changes before they are made.
The fresh round of savings will not help the authority fill a separate £23m gap in its budget for this year, which led to the issuing of a Section 114 notice, effectively declaring bankruptcy, at the end of November.
During an Executive Board meeting on Tuesday (December 19), councillors reluctantly approved the plans and agreed to put a raft of measures out for public consultation.
Ross Brown, the council’s chief finance officer, said the savings have been proposed due to “exceptional operational challenges.”
“These have resulted in truly unprecedented pressures, specifically in the current financial year that was clearly articulated by the issuance of the Section 114 [notice],” he said.
“Many of those pressures and challenges experienced here and now will also manifest themselves as future growth requirements into the 2024/25 financial year.”
To bridge the £53.7m gap next year, some of the savings include a review of the libraries service, which could result in the loss of 31 jobs to save £1.5m, cutting down road sweeping, reducing community protection to save £3m at a loss of 63 jobs and stopping some linkbus services.
A number of in-house services may also be entirely closed, including the Jackdawe home care service for people with dementia and the Barkla Close respite care for adults with learning disabilities.
It has also been proposed the Ridge Adventure Playground and Bulwell Play and Youth Centre close down.
Out of the 500 job cuts, a total of 187 jobs will be cut without the requirement of public consultation, with savings totalling £20.6m.
However, even with the proposed cuts a budget gap of £33.2m remains, and Mr Brown says more work is now taking place in a bid to find additional savings.
The council is also assessing how the local government finance settlement, announced by the Government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on December 18, will benefit the authority.
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove announced a funding package of £64.1 billion, which he says is up 6.5 per cent on the year before.
But during the meeting Mr Brown said Nottingham’s settlement is lower than the national core spending power increase and equates to a 6.37 per cent rise.
He added the claim of a 6.5 per cent increase in spending power also includes money which must be raised through council tax hikes.
This means the actual figure for additional funding is closer to four per cent.
Cllr David Mellen (Lab), the leader of the council, said: “It feels to me disingenuous for the Government to announce a 6.5 per cent rise in funding to local councils, when actually two per cent of that is the amount they are giving us permission to ask the hard-pressed people of Nottingham to pay.
“Their rise is only really four per cent, not acknowledging in the slightest the pressures on our budgets.”
Councillors spoke to say almost half of the proposed savings and cuts do not have political support from members.
Cllr Steve Battlemuch (Lab) added: “We’ve got to look at the fact some of these proposals will absolutely wreck the fabric of the city if implemented in full, and we’ve got to find every possible way of finding extra money over the next eight weeks to stop some of those proposals being put to Full Council in February.
“I would publicly say that consultation is really vital.
“It is absolutely vital we hear what services are popular, but also what services are vitally needed in this city, and we need to see that and people need to speak up about those services, because we want to be able to use that consultation in our further discussions with Government.”
