The financial challenge and the need for change
The money the Council receives from the Government has been reducing for some time and will do so again in 2018/19. Since 2010, we have delivered savings totalling £376 million. By 2021, our total savings will have risen to £0.5 billion. On top of this, we are facing higher than ever demand for our services. We have made a number of difficult choices over the last few years to make the savings we needed, and we need to do this again to make sure that we have enough money in our budget to run services that meet statutory requirements (what we must do) and help those who need it the most.
Our population is growing and its needs are changing. New responsibilities for the Council have placed huge pressures on our public services in the county. As a result of this, and changes at a national level (including Brexit and a new minority Conservative government) we must look again at our financial plans. We are making our case to the Government for Fairer Funding to address this, but we need to act now to make sure we have enough money in our budget for 2018/19 to meet all the pressures we face.
Have your say on Phase 1 of the County Council’s budget proposals
We have started to look at what we might need to change in terms of how we deliver our services and whether we need to reduce or stop anything we currently do. Our proposals set out the start of our plans to deliver a balanced budget for 2018/19 to make sure we have enough money to deliver our key services. In Phase 1, we are consulting early on proposals where we might need to meet contractual or procurement deadlines, where we may need to consult with staff, or where there is a chance of starting to make savings in 2017/18. For Phase 1, these add up to a value of £9.6m.
In December, we will launch Phase 2 of our consultation, which will be our consultation on the draft budget. Phase 2 will also include consultation on the level of Council Tax we propose to set for 2018/19 and have more proposals on how we will manage next year’s budget.
Your feedback on both phases of consultation is really important to us, and all consultation feedback from both phases will be analysed and considered, and will help Councillors make a final decision on the Budget at the Full Council meeting on 22nd February 2018. This meeting is held in public and anyone wishing to speak at the meeting should contact Customer Services.
The consultation on Phase 1 of the budget proposals covered by this survey will run for six weeks, starting on 20th October 2017 and ending on 1st December 2017. Details about the consultation on Phase 2 of the budget proposals will be announced in December. Please email consult@northamptonshire.gov.uk if you would like to be notified when Phase 2 of this consultation launches.
How to give your views
We want to hear your views about these options to understand the possible impact of the proposals and what would be the best way forward for the Library and Information Service in Northamptonshire.
Please visit our web site for all of the different ways you can give your feedback to these proposals, including our online questionnaire and public events.
This consultation closes at 1st December 2017.
Details of this consultation and other past and present consultations are available on Northamptonshire County Council’s Consultation Register.