Cuts will be hard and deep

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Scotland's largest council is warning that cuts in spending will be "harder, faster and deeper" than it had originally expected.

Glasgow City Council has said it will have to find £40m more in savings next year than it had planned for – leading to even bigger cuts in services.

The authority now expects to have to save a total of £115m between 2011 and 2013. It had hoped to delay some savings for longer.

Council officials will have to find ways of achieving the cuts and balancing its books. They are already well on the way to cutting 2,800 jobs over the next three years through retirements and voluntary redundancies.

The authority is predicting that it will receive nearly £38m less from the government next year. While it expects its main grant to fall by £45m it anticipates getting nearly £8m more so that the council tax can be frozen again.

Councillor Gordon Matheson, the leader of Glasgow City Council said: "The scale of the challenge faced by Scotland's councils in the coming years is staggering. However, Glasgow is not afraid to take difficult decisions and we've started that process already."

Elsewhere in Scotland other local authorities are facing similar problems.
Aberdeen City Council will have to make about £120m of savings over the next five years, it has been announcd. The council said it expected its government grant would be reduced by at least £80m up to 2014/15 and would face £40m of "additional cost pressures".

A five-year business plan is being drawn up "to address the severe financial constraints on the public sector".

And councillors in Dumfries and Galloway are being asked to cut an extra £3m from their spending plans. The move comes on top of £5.5m worth of savings already agreed.