Many thanks to everyone who responded to our Budget 2013-15 proposals. Your views, along with other contributions and discussions, will help inform our findings and next steps.
Why we did this?
In 2011, the government began a major
programme of cuts to public services. Local government has been hit harder by
this than almost any other sector.
In Leicester, we have already planned to
reduce our annual spending by £75 million, and we estimate we will need to make
additional cuts of over £50 million per
year by 2016. These are the most severe
cuts any of us have had to face, and making choices about where we will have to
reduce spending is extremely difficult.
The city council has to agree a balanced
budget each year – there is no option to set a budget which we can’t pay for. The
council is therefore forced to make cuts in its budgets. Wherever possible, we
are determined to protect front line services, but given the scale of the
reductions some front line cuts are inevitable.
Because of the plans we made last year, we
do not have to make all of the £50 million cuts immediately. The proposals I am
making this year seek to balance the budget for the next two years, and give us
breathing space to plan the very substantial cuts needed by 2016. Nonetheless,
we still have to make cuts in the next two years which are unwelcome and which
will have a real impact on what we can do.
Last year, the council also carried out a
detailed consultation exercise asking the public which services were most
important to them, and which should be reduced to make cuts. More than 1,400
responses were received and those views helped to give us a much clearer
insight into the views and wishes of local people.
Our consultation
For each council department, we outlined
the services we're responsible for, the budget each department has and any
proposed changes to that budget. We explained why we thought any changes are
necessary.
Our departments are:
- Education and
children’s services
- Adult social care,
health and housing, which is split into two portfolios:
– adult social care
– housing
- City development
and neighbourhoods, which is split into three portfolios:
– neighbourhood
services
– culture,
heritage, leisure and sport
– economic
development, planning and transport
- Corporate
resources and support.
Our Budget Strategy document for 2013-14 until 2014-15
Following a period of extensive discussion and public consultation, my councillor colleagues approved the budget covering the period 2013-14 until 2014-15 during our full council meeting on 20th February 2013.
You can download a PDF copy of our strategy document, which highlights the wider context of the budget decision making process and our future approach, at the bottom of this page. To view this, you'll need Adobe Reader, which can be downloaded from the Adobe website*.
*Leicester City Council is not responsible for the content and services
on external websites or any software downloaded to your computer.
