Deputy council leader claims front line services in Northumberland won't be affected by £32m savings needed by 2028

A report containing the draft proposals for so-called “efficiencies” in the council’s 2024/25 budget contains £10.85 million worth of savings next year as part of almost £32 million of budget cuts and savings by the end of 2028.

A report set to be presented to the cabinet on Tuesday makes it clear that the local government settlement provided at the end of December provided “no certainty” beyond the end of 2024. This “makes budget planning difficult” and means the savings for each year after 2024/25 are estimates.

It comes after the council leader Glen Sanderson admitted the council needed “sustainable” funding from Government and admitted he could not rule out compulsory redundancies of council staff.

The report goes on to say that the “assumptions will continue to be reviewed” as the council’s medium term financial plan is updated. However, it adds that “early identification and planning for savings required in later years” will be “critical”.

Deputy leader, Cllr Richard Wearmouth, explained that much of the savings were about “doing things better. This will be achieved by the council’s BEST programme, which is designed to make the council ” more modern, efficient, and fit for purpose whilst delivering sustainable financial savings”.

He said: “The council in the autumn of last year launched a major programme called BEST, aimed at closing out inefficient ways of working.

“That work has already made savings in key areas like procurement, but there are a host of other savings that are available to us without impacting on frontline services and we will be delivering these over the course of the next few years.”

According to the report, the most-affected department of the council will be “cross directorate/corporate”, which £12.4 million in efficiencies identified by 2028.

Of these cuts, £2.29 million will be saved in 2024/25; £5.25 million in 2025/26; £4.24 million in 2026/27 and £690,000 in 2027/28. The largest savings proposed is through the BEST programme in category management of class commissioning (£4.5 million) and customer service savings (£2.9 million).

Elsewhere, a total of £7.22 million is proposed to be saved from the adult social care budget. The bulk of this comes from care management savings by reviewing individual packages of care.

Children’s services will also see a reduction in spend of £6.15m by 2028. More than half (£3.01 million) of these savings will come from a reduction in out of county placements, thanks to new build children’s homes in Northumberland itself. Other savings include £2.78 million from place and regeneration and £2.13 million from public health.

The report does highlight the fact that the council still has an ambitious capital programme in place for the coming years of £782.92 million. Of this, £337.66 million is set to be spent in 2024/25. It also reminds members that the detail of the budget has “yet to be finalised” and the report is simply for the cabinet’s information.

The draft budget will be scrutinised in full by all councillors at the end of January, before the final version is voted on in February.