Plan to beat budget cuts
Published: 10 June 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY
THE Town Hall is set to dip into Camden’s savings piggy bank to stave off a package of deep cuts ordered by the government.
Finance chiefs will look at using £80million of reserves – meant for “rainy day” emergencies – in order to protect services.
At the first meeting of the new Labour cabinet running the Town Hall last night (Wednesday), treasurer Mike O’Donnell told chief councillors that Camden is still waiting for clear information from the Treasury about the full scale of the cuts that will be ordered.
“We’ve been promised the figures three times and we still haven’t got them,” he said. “The best estimate that we have to go on is 6.2 million to 9 million which is a significant amount.”
Mr O’Donnell said the council had already begun looking at potential permanent cuts to spending amid predictions that the government will hack back local authority finances even further in future years. Funding known as Local Area Grants, given to individual projects in Camden, is likely to be scrutinised in the savings drive.
“I wouldn’t say this is painless,” said Mr O’Donnell, adding that £1.2billion was being taken out of local government budgets nationally. Labour’s finance chief Councillor Theo Blackwell missed the meeting through illness. He is understood to think Camden can protect itself through the first round of cuts ordered by the government but could then be vulnerable.
The full forecast from Chancellor George Osbourne is expected within the next seven days.