Residents can have their say on an additional set of savings proposals as Durham County Council moves towards setting its budget

Residents can have their say on an additional set of savings proposals as Durham County Council moves towards setting its budget

Durham County Council is moving towards finalising its budget planning for 2026/27 and the following three years as part of its Medium Term Financial Planning (MTFP) process.

It follows a report presented to Cabinet last week outlining the council’s current financial position, which has been impacted by escalating demand and cost pressures in its statutory social care budgets and which the authority has had no choice but to accommodate.

Cabinet heard that the council is currently awaiting announcements from the government’s Autumn Budget on 26 November and the Local Government Finance Settlement that will follow in December.

National funding outcomes will influence decisions on any savings required and the need for council tax increases. As such, the council has made a strong case for a fairer and much bigger financial settlement from central government.

These late announcements in the budget planning cycle have made financial planning for the council difficult as it will not be able to factor in announcements, such as the outcome of the Fair Funding Reforms, until January. This leaves the council with less time to react if the funding received is less than is needed.

November’s report identified a range of additional savings to help with balancing the budget next year and across the next four years through to 2029/30, though Cabinet was told these new savings are still less than is required to balance the books.

These savings are in addition to those set out in September’s MTFP report, which the council has recently consulted on.

The authority is now looking for comments from residents on the new additional set of savings, which will total £10.057m across the four-year period and which would be in addition to the £5.662m of savings previously developed.

By the end of this MTFP planning period, the council will have found savings and efficiencies of more than £300m since 2010.

The new savings proposals have been set into three categories:

· Savings from back office and making efficiencies

· Raising additional income and reducing third-party contributions

· Savings from changes in the way in which the council delivers front line services

Factoring in the £10.057 million of new additional savings and assuming a zero per cent increase in council tax, the revised budget shortfall would be £72.8 million over the next four years, with £18.464 million of this falling into 2026/27. The report recognises that this is not a sustainable position and that difficult choices will need to be made on council tax increases if the government funding position does not improve.

Cllr Darren Grimes, Deputy leader of Durham County Council, said: “The financial forecasts demonstrate that balancing our budget will be extremely challenging over the next four years. We will not know what levels of funding we will receive from Government until late December, which makes planning incredibly difficult.

“We have made a very strong case to Government for additional funding to meet the unavoidable cost pressures we face, caused by national policy decisions and something we have no control over.

“For years now, this council has been short-changed by successive governments and asked to do increasingly more with less and less resources. Cost pressures – driven by national decisions and statutory requirements set by central government – outstrip the funding being provided to meet them, leaving us and other councils having to implement cuts in services and council tax increases.

“For years the underfunding of local government has been passed onto the local council taxpayers instead of the government providing the funding to meet these national cost drivers. We do hope that the Chancellor is listening and that we receive the funding we desperately need to meet Whitehall’s demands on us.

“We are in the unenviable position of having to make further savings – in some cases further cuts to local services – to meet these funding shortfalls, but we must balance the books.

“This is why must, therefore, consult residents on additional new savings proposals, developed to help with balancing the budget next year and across the MTFP period. We would encourage residents and organisations in County Durham to give us their views on these proposals, as their feedback will help us shape our budget proposals and help with longer-term planning as we look ahead to future years.”

The outcome of the budget consultation and the council’s funding settlement will be reported to Cabinet in January. Final budget proposals will then be reported to Cabinet in February before being considered and agreed by Full Council on 18 February.

Members of the public can take part in the consultation on the new savings proposals by visiting www.letstalkcountydurham.co.uk