Issue 26, December 2010 (PDF, 8Mb) - Knowsley Council

What’s hot
Budget update
S
“
ince the last budget update in this magazine you will all have seen
and heard a great deal about the government’s plans to reduce public
spending significantly in order to tackle the national debt. There have
been lots of headlines and speculation about what might or might not
happen in the future and what these cuts will mean for people throughout the
UK. What we do know is that the plans to cut the national debt are having an
impact all over the country and Knowsley will not escape this.
Whilst the announcements made by the government in recent months do give
us more information regarding the extent of the planned cuts, there is a great
deal of detail still to be released before we can properly assess the impact in this
area. Particularly, at the time this magazine went to print, we were still awaiting
confirmation regarding how much grant we will receive from the government
towards next year’s council budget.
Although we still don’t have the detail, we do already know that it is likely that we
will need to finding savings of up to £30 million in the next financial year.
We continue to make progress with this and have already identified approximately
£10 million worth of savings and efficiencies from across the organisation without
having a severe impact on frontline council services.
Finding another £20 million will be an even tougher job, and it is going to be
impossible to make that amount of savings without some impact on how the
council delivers services across the borough. Similarly, there will be an impact on
our workforce as we are going to have to reduce the number of jobs at the council,
which we are doing everything we can to achieve through early retirement and
voluntary redundancy.
Finding out what you think
In recent months we have been asking our staff and residents for their
views. Most recently we have been out and about across the borough
asking residents to tell us about their priorities for the future and to give
us their feedback on how they and their communities might be able to
support our work.
If you haven’t already done so, why not take the time to share your views on
the opposite page. You can freepost your comments back to us.
Cllr Ron Round, Leader of Knowsley
Council, commented,
We have had to respond
quickly and decisively to the
tough challenges arising from
the government cuts to our
funding. The progress made
to date would not have been
possible without the ongoing
commitment and support
from elected members and
officers of the council who are
continuing work to protect
services and support for
people living in Knowsley.
It hasn’t been easy to identify
the savings to date
but there will be
even tougher
decisions ahead
as we move
forward with this
work and
face these
challenges
head on.
”
We will continue to provide
updates on this work and important
information about services and
support through this magazine, in
the media and on our website.
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