LEADER’S
NOTES
“Money we get from the
government...is expected
to plummet”
Councillor Julian Bell
Leader of the council
Less to
go round
Cuts are a gloomy thing to be
pondering at this time of year.
However, unfortunately, we
cannot ignore the looming,
dark shadow of severe budget
savings, nor their consequences
for us all – but I want to assure
you the council is doing
everything it can.
S
ervices used by many
of the borough’s
residents will have to be
significantly reduced, or
even stopped, from April 2015
as Ealing Council responds to a
huge reduction in the amount of
funding available.
Despite having already been
forced to find an unprecedented
£87million of budget savings over
the past four years, we now face
the unpalatable prospect of having
to find an even larger amount,
£96million, all over again. This
is, not least, because the money
we get from the government to
run local services is expected to
plummet further.
Every effort is being made to
ensure the council operates as
efficiently as possible, to cut costs.
And opportunities to share costs
through partnerships with other
councils have been seized. But
despite these steps, significant
and wide-ranging cuts to frontline
services are now inevitable.
HOW BAD IS IT?
Our current projections show that,
by 2019, the council will have lost
more than half the money it gets
from the government to spend on
local services, over the course of
the decade. Money for schools and
housing benefit is separate and
largely not in the council’s control.
4
around ealing
Winter 2014/15
Between 2010-14 we found
savings to reduce spending by
£87million, but by the end of
2018/19 we expect to have to
reduce it by a further £96million.
This new savings target
also takes into account rising
population, increasing demands
on services and a shortage of
housing in the borough.
Indeed, it comes at a time when
more people than ever are reliant
on the council for help – whether
for housing or social care – yet no
additional funding is available to
deal with this growing demand.
And, budgeting also needs to
respond to continual increases in
costs through inflation.
WHAT ARE WE DOING
ABOUT IT?
Concerted efforts by the council
to operate more efficiently, such
as by cutting management and
supplier costs, has enabled
previous reductions to be achieved
with minimal impact on residents,
and especially the most vulnerable.
Having largely exhausted those
opportunities, however, the council
is now preparing to implement
radical changes to the way it
operates, but many services will
also need to be reduced and some
to be provided in a different way
or stopped altogether.
One of the biggest changes is