We can’t repeat these saving every year – they happen just once

Please read this and submit your comments. As you can see, even with all the reductions in funding, the Council still has a net budget of over £142m, with most of the pressures coming from increased demand for services. The bold but necessary decisions we have taken over the past few years mean that we are protecting key frontline services. That is why we chose to bring some services back into the Council’s control from Capita and SCS; or why we introduced the successful green waste collection subscription; or we contracted out our leisure and golf services to a not for profit organisation and a private company. However, we can’t repeat these savings every year – they happen just once.

Since a large share of the Council’s spending now goes on providing individual care for the vulnerable elderly, those with learning difficulties, and safeguarding children, the savings we achieve here are through improvements in how we assess need and commission support. There are fewer big schemes left to cut or close. The devil, or rather the reduction, is in the detail.

I would also like to address some of the myths that occur whenever we discuss our budget. Some call for a cut in the spending on “consultants” as if that would solve all our problems. As you will see from the budget papers, there is no amount allocated to consultants. More importantly, if you look at the businesses named “consultants” in our monthly spending reports, you will see that a better title would be technical experts. Around half the money goes to our highways specialists. Given that road safety, design, and maintenance are crucial for our lives and economy, we can hardly cut that. There is a myth that if we cut back what we spend on new buildings – our capital programme – we would have more money as we would not have the debt charges. This ignores the fact that we may have statutory duties to provide new schools, new or refurbished roads, and other vital schemes. Those who argue that such projects should not exist also overlook the fact that some of the buildings generate income. The reality of the budget is quite simple: demand for services is rising faster than the Council’s ability to raise income to pay for them. There is no real desire to raise taxes nor does central government have a reserve of cash. The truth is that we all have to continue making the difficult choices.