Council braces for £8m cuts amid 'significant strain'

The leader of Derby City Council says its ability to deliver frontline services is “on the edge of breaking point” as it seeks to make £8m of cuts over the next year.

The authority has currently outspent its budget by almost £10m, up £3m on this time last year, and faces about £22m of emerging pressures.

Nadine Peatfield said frontline services were “operating at the bare minimum” and were a serious concern.

“It is a worry for me and it's something that I'm constantly looking at," she told the BBC.

“But, realistically, with a lot of the savings having already been made, we can't operate on any less than we already have right now. I know that. That is being reflected on our city streets.

“We put people first and that's really important to us but it's becoming increasingly difficult to put people's welfare at the forefront of our decision making when we're faced with such swingeing cuts to our budget.”

The social care budget is overspent by about £13m, despite the council allocating an additional £12m to the area this year.

The council says it is expecting to spend about 80% of its roughly £300m budget for the next financial year on social care.

Rising numbers of homeless families needing temporary accommodation over the past year have been identified as a “significant new pressure”, as well as soaring social care costs beyond forecasts.

Increased homelessness in the city has been put down to the cost of living, private landlords putting prices up and a lack of social homes, said the council.

The number of households in B&B accommodation in Derby has more than doubled on the same period last year, with private provision such as Airbnb being used more frequently due to scarce supply.

The council insists it has a ”good track record” of reducing pressures.

However, while it’s thought job losses at the council or significant cutbacks on ongoing projects are unlikely, senior leaders will be identifying further cuts “as quickly as possible”.

Ms Peatfield said she was still "ambitious" for the city, despite stating in a letter to the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner that it was becoming increasingly difficult to “maintain financial stability” at the council.

Leaders also say they are not hopeful that help will be forthcoming from the government's October budget.

Ms Peatfield said: “We are identifying savings that we hope we can make as quickly as possible, including bringing some savings forward from the next financial year to this [year] wherever possible.”

“The reality is, the only way that we will be able to improve frontline services considering our financial position is to make a savings.”

The leader said she was “concerned” the brunt of central government cuts on areas such as the winter fuel allowance may be expected to be borne by councils, who may find themselves unable to support the most vulnerable.

The council is currently working to ensure all those who are able to claim pension credit are able to do so in order to receive the allowance.

“We are being proactive. We are applying pressure to government to offer innovative ways that we can we can make it work," Ms Peatfield said.

The council’s chief executive Paul Simpson said local government finances in general were facing an “existential crisis”.

“Something has to change – or we can’t provide services," he said.

The council’s cabinet committee will review the authority’s financial position at a meeting next week.

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