As Council Cuts Loom, Residents to be Consulted For Their Views

Published on: 27 Nov, 2020
Updated on: 30 Nov, 2020

Guildford residents will be asked for their views on where to prioritise spending in the face of inevitable cuts to services, the council Executive decided at their November 24 meeting.

They were considering the latest outline budget for 2021-22 and ways to help with the council’s medium-term plans up to 2025.

Council leader Joss Bigmore (R4GV, Christchurch), said: ‘Even with our continued focus on savings, together with investment and effective management, our funding situation has become more challenging, with a predicted budget shortfall of £2 million for next year, rising to a total of £4.4 million in four years.

Cllr Joss Bigmore

“We also have a significant gap between our additional spend of £13.4 million supporting our communities through the pandemic, and the £4.7 million government support we have received so far.

“We are expecting a further £2 million from the government which would make £6.7 million in total, leaving us with a £6.7 million shortfall, and we are using reserves to ensure we can maintain our response and continue to provide vital services to those who most need our help.’

“We have not received any general grant funding from the government since 2017/18 and since 2013 we have had nearly £4 million less in overall government funding support. We make up this loss with commercial activities such as investment property, car parking and income from sports facilities which provide about £21 million of income each year.

“As businesses across the commercial sector are also experiencing, these activities have been severely impacted by the pandemic as we continue to follow necessary government guidance in order to reduce the spread of the virus.”

Cllr Bigmore gave a breakdown of council tax. “From the average Band D property payment we keep just 9% of the total for our own services. The Police and Crime Commissioner receives 13% and parish councils 2%, with the remaining 76% going to the county council.

“This means for a Band D home we receive about £200 per property each year and for this we have been able to provide £450 worth of services to our residents across a wide range of activities.

“But despite careful financial management and maximising what we can do to earn and borrow money within the limits of public sector rules set out in the Local Government Act 2003, we need to save more.

“I’m afraid this is not as easy as selling a building. We need to make revenue savings [ongoing running costs] not capital [one-off fixed costs such as property] as we are unable to borrow money to fund day-to-day services.”

Cllr Tim Anderson

Cllr Tim Anderson (R4GV, Clandon & Horsley), lead for finance, added: “We will have difficult decisions to make in the days ahead and we will continue to put our residents at the heart of everything we do while working closely with other Surrey councils to lobby the government for fairer funding and for greater freedom to create commercial income.

“Any decisions we need to make on changes to our excellent services will fully involve our residents and they will be asked to have their say to inform those decisions. We aim to start consultation as soon as possible.

“The present position shows a shortfall of £2 million for 2021/22 and we anticipate this will increase to £4.4 million by 2024/25. We now receive no government grant, and as business rates are redistributed to other parts of the country, we retain just 5% of business rates in our borough.

“To address this gap, we continue to build on the £11 million of savings made in the past five years and with our ongoing Future Guildford Transformation Programme to make our services more efficient and cost-effective.’

Cllr Ramsey Nagaty

Ramsey Nagaty (GGG, Shalford), said: “It was good to see the Cllr Bigmore and Cllr Anderson explain the financial situation, aided by Claire Morris, the director of finance.

“Sadly, GBC cannot under existing rules use reserves to support continued expenditure on services. GGG want to maintain services but as GBC income has been cut, it is clear due to Covid 19, that savings must be made.

“Services to the poor and needy should be maintained wherever possible. Where savings need to be made, GGG are supportive of public consultation done in the right way at minimal expense.”

Sallie Barker

Sallie Barker chair of the Guildford Conservative Association, said: “Guildford Conservatives fully support GBC’s involvement of residents in the decision-making process and look forward to hearing about the consultation process, which we, and our members, will engage with.

“It was good to hear the Independent administration acknowledge that, in addressing the gap, GBC plans to build on the £11 million savings made by the previous Conservative administrations. This also meant that in 2018/19 Guildford had the second lowest council tax in Surrey.

“Strong fiscal planning from successive Conservative administrations at Guildford Borough Council has meant that the Council was left in a good financial state in May 2019 with significant reserves and strong plans for investing into residents and services.

“We were delighted to hear that Angela Richardson MP, has been able to secure £25m from the Government’s spending review towards the Weyside Urban Village to help build affordable housing in Guildford.”

Guildford Labour Party in a statement, said they recognised the serious state of the borough finances and that government promises of support have, as usual during this crisis, been overstated.

“We fear for the most disadvantaged in our deeply unequal borough as the impact of these deficits mounts. The most effective saving would be to reduce the three layers of councils to one, which will both save a large amount of money and make local government more transparent.

“Surrey Labour has long favoured a system of three unitary authorities. But what is really needed is a Labour Government which will start to fund local government properly and increase tax for the richest 1% who can afford to contribute more to our community.”

Howard Smith

Howard Smith, Labour parliamentary candidate in 2017, said: “Local government finances are a mess and the only route to proper funding is a Labour government. Difficult choices will have to be made and our councillors will play their part.

“But fundamental change is necessary and this needs to happen at the ballot box, and the elections in May will be the first opportunity for residents to make their views known.”

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