Plans to cut nearly 150 jobs have been announced by Liverpool City Council in a bid to save £32m from next year’s budget. Grants to organisations providing social care will be removed and a number of voluntary groups will lose part or all of their funding under the new plans. The city council is yet to come to a decision on whether to freeze council tax or increase it by 1.8 per cent to generate an extra £2m.
Richard Kemp, the leader of the Liberal Democrats on the council, said any increase in council tax was “absolutely unnecessary” as the planned increase would only raise £400,000 more than a freeze would as “the government will give us £1.5m to keep it level”.
The £32m budget savings come on top of the £141m of cuts already made over the past two years and further cuts of £46m in 2014-15, £35m in 2015-16 and £36m in 2016-17.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said authorities have space to make further savings while “safeguarding vital public services” and “ending the something-for-nothing culture”.
Under the council’s plans 150 jobs would be cut and a further 250 posts would be moved to other organisations. A council spokesman said they would do all it could to redistribute staff and mitigate job losses.
He said the budget plans had been “a horrendous process with some extremely difficult and hard choices in order to balance the books for the next financial year, but also to prepare for the following year.”
“We’ve had to do it because we’re having 52% of our funding taken away from us. The choice was to do that or set an illegal budget which we’re not going to do.”
Library closures
The plans in place include reducing funding to adult and children’s social care, selling off four of the city’s nurseries and removing the funding to Everton Children’s Centre.
Some of the city’s public libraries and Allerton and Kirkby open golf courses could close and be sold off under the plans.
A reshuffle of the library network would save £1m a year while closing the golf clubs, would save £300,000.
Funding for sheltered housing wardens would be removed and landlords asked to fund the deficit. The council estimates a £1m saving by doing so.
Furthermore, the authority is proposing to charge for alarms in sheltered housing, saving almost £500,000.
Homeless hostels at Aigburth Drive and Geneva Road are also under threat, with closures believed to save £150,000 per year.
The council’s Truancy Watch and Integrated Youth and Play Service could also be cut under the proposals.
Mayor Joe Anderson warned it was only the beginning and worse was to come with budget cuts until 2017.
“The simple fact is that we get 80% of our funding from the government, and the savage cut in our grant means we are the hardest hit city in the country.”
“Even what we have done now will pale into insignificance with what we have to do over the next two years.”
The council has still to make a decision on whether to increase council tax or accept a £1.6m government grant to freeze it, which is not available after the next financial year. The council could increase it by 1.8 per cent which would generate around £2m income for future budgets.
The plans are supported by the city council’s budget working group which comprises of the mayor, Liberal Party and Liberal Democrats.
Mr Kemp said the savings amounted to £21m, as £11m of additional income was “mostly government funding” which could not be included in the total figure, and that his party had only agreed to the measures “in extremis”.
Consultation will now start on the plans and they will be considered by the mayoral select working group on 12 February and the cabinet on 22 February.
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