Richmondshire councillors are facing
cuts of 32% in central government grant aid over the next two
years.
Councillors are looking for savings of
£1,344,000 - £750,000 more than has already been earmarked.
And £500,000 of that needing to be found in
the next financial year.
On Monday (December 13) the government
announced spending cuts for local government with front loading for
districts beyond what was expected – when taking account of
adjustments and cash values.
“An initial analysis suggests that districts
fared badly when compared to other types of council,” said Chief
Executive, Peter Simpson.
He said that changes to the way funding is
calculated was also announced and this has served to confuse the
headline figures of the scale of the cut. The Government announced
that the total ‘revenue spending power’ was to be reduced by 5.8%
in 2011/12, and by a further 6.0% in 2012/13. This new
revenue spending power is made up of government grants, council
tax, parish precepts and specific grants – such as for housing
benefit administration.
For Richmondshire the loss of grant is:
- 2011/12 : £909,000 or 21.4%
- 2012/13 : a further £435,000 or 10.2%
In addition the specific grant for the
administration of Housing and Council Tax Benefit will be removed
totally in 2012/13 costing the Council an additional £252,000.
“This is worse than we were expected when you
look at the actual cut in cash available,” said Council Leader,
Councillor Fleur Butler.
“However we have been planning for this and
currently we have a shortfall next year of around £500,000 having
already identified over a £1m of savings including those from our
shared service approach with Hambleton. There are some tough
choices to be made and we have opened up a consultation on them
with more to do in the coming years.”
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