Councils fear they can't make savings in time

9 Feb 11
Councils might not be able to achieve their required 2011/12 savings on time, risking budgets being overspent, finance chiefs have warned

By Lucy Phillips

9 February 2011

Councils might not be able to achieve their required 2011/12 savings on time, risking budgets being overspent, finance chiefs have warned.

An survey of 110 councils in England, Scotland and Wales, published by CIPFA today, 70% of respondents were concerned that they would not be able to make the changes needed to slash their budgets in the next financial year. This was put down to reduced numbers of staff and public opposition to service cuts.

Furthermore, more than half of councils feared that some reforms would cost more to implement and save less than planned.

Changes to help balance the budgets include efficiency projects, more sharing of services with other public bodies, increasing or introducing new fees and charges for services and reducing or withdrawing frontline services.

CIPFA warned that a failure to make the changes on time was likely to result in budgets being overspent, creating further problems for local authorities in the medium term.  

CIPFA chief executive Steve Freer said: ‘Many councils are planning major organisational, systems and service changes in every department. Chief finance officers are committed to help implement these initiatives but they are also drawing attention to the very real risks which must be managed along the way.

‘Balancing tight budgets is a tough, stressful activity. CFOs are reminding councils that the business of delivering budgets is likely to be even more challenging.’

Draft council budgets show savings are being sought in both back-office and frontline services. Some two-thirds of councils are planning cuts of 5%–20% to finance, human resources and IT departments while almost half of authorities are proposing cuts of more than 10% to libraries, arts and museums.

Almost a third (28%) of councils plan to cut leisure, parks, sports

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