Thursday, 21 January 2010

Notts County Council Finds £4M Down the Back of the Sofa

Hot on the heels of the LGA referring to the current economic climate in councils as being "rather like the time when you've got to scrabble down the back of the sofa for loose change...", Unison and NCC have have had a rummage around and discovered £2M in the shape of increased council tax revenue from new houses, thanks to the diligent efforts of Ravi Subramanian of Unison.

Apparently the latest figures for the new tax base weren't available when the budget was compiled. The budget was released a month earlier than usual due to scale of the cutbacks and to "make sure everyone gets the opportunity to have their say about the Council's future financial priorities."

The new budget has found an extra £4M and means that many threatened cuts to local services have now been softened, and Council communications suggest that some redundancies may be avoided. Here you can find further details of the revised budget. Changes to Terms and Conditions have also been softened.

NCC states that of the £85M savings required over 3 years, £53M is to be invested "to meet increased demand for Council services." 2 days after the budget revisions were announced, NCC's budget proposals consultation closes tomorrow, on Friday.