Nottingham City Council has confirmed a remaining gap in its budget of around £3million next year has been filled and the authority will not need to find any extra savings. The council revealed last December that it was making savings of around £29m, with plans including the axing of 110 council jobs an an increase in council tax of 4.99%.
But the council said despite all the proposals made, which also included the withdrawal of the wheelchair hire service at the Victoria Centre, a gap of £3.2m still remained for the upcoming financial year, starting in April. The authority said it was working between December and its executive board meeting this month and filling the remaining gap.
But ahead of that meeting next Tuesday (February 21), the council said the remaining £3.2m gap has been closed. In papers to be presented at the meeting, the authority said that the Government's latest funding settlement and the latest projections around business rates both mean a net increase of £11.2m compared to the situation presented in December.
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Clive Heaphy, the council's former corporate director of finance, predicted in January that the Government's funding settlement could eliminate the remaining budget gap. He said at the time: "It's possible. We think it could have a positive effect on us and that could remove it."
Councillor Adele Williams, the council's deputy leader and portfolio holder for finance, said that pressures remained despite the gap being closed. Cllr Williams said: "Like all councils, businesses and households, the city council's finances have been impacted by the cost of living crisis created by soaring inflation on pay, fuel and energy costs.
"Other pressures, including vastly diminished Government grants over the last 13 years, have also made this another challenging year to set next year’s budget and a four-year financial plan. With ongoing issues of social care funding, local taxpayers face an additional cost on their council tax bills and we have no real choice but to set the 4.99% council tax allowed by Government, which includes a supplement to help towards the increasing costs and demand for adult social care."
The council's budget will be discussed at Tuesday's executive board meeting and will then have to be approved by a full council meeting on March 6. Other plans include the temporary borrowing of £20m from internal earmarked revenue reserves to "strengthen the council's financial resilience".
Cllr Williams added: "Sadly this will place a further burden on local people who we know are already struggling, and won’t raise enough to properly meet local needs. But we get just under £100m a year less in general grant than we did a decade ago from the national government, which seriously affects our ability to provide the services local people need.
"That's equivalent to £694 for each household in our city – we are being asked to fill that gap from Nottingham pockets and from savings from service areas. We will continue to fight for a fairer deal for our city."
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