Stourbridge News
Dudley councillors back cuts totalling £7.5m
4:53pm Thursday 9th February 2012
DUDLEY councillors have given the nod for a further round of cuts to help save £7.5million from the 2012/13 budget.
Members of Dudley Council’s cabinet gave the thumbs-up to make savings across the board over the next financial year.
A report to the committee highlighted plans to save £3.1million in adult, community and housing, £1.6million in urban environment, £1.3million in children’s services, £935,000 in corporate resources and £337,000 in the chief executive’s department.
The council says it has consulted widely on the proposals, particularly those affecting adult social care and children’s services, and as a result a number of planned reductions have been deferred to future years.
David Blood, Dudley’s cabinet member for finance, said at last night's (Wednesday’s) cabinet meeting: “The financial outlook remains challenging and there are difficult decisions to be made.”
He said the council would look to minimise job losses by making savings, where possible, through modernisation of services and reductions in management and administration costs, support and overheads.
The authority has admitted there will have to be redundancies but at the moment no compulsory job losses have been confirmed.
A total of 549 council workers have so far requested to take voluntary redundancy but only 80 requests have currently been deemed acceptable.
Council bosses say they hope to implement job reductions through redeployment, non-filling of vacancies, job sharing, retirements and voluntary redundancies.
The cabinet also confirmed this year’s council tax will be frozen thanks to a £2.8million government grant.
Cllr Blood said: “The freeze is designed to help residents and help with the cost of living. We have a moral duty to freeze the tax.”
While council leader, councillor Les Jones, dismissed fears raised by Labour’s shadow finance spokesman, councillor Pete Lowe, this year’s freeze would lead to a 3.5 per cent hike for the next two years - unless it is off-set by further cuts.
He described the figure as “a working assumption of what we know today” adding: “It could be determined by factors we don’t even know about yet.”
Councillors are expected to ratify the 2012/13 budget strategy and council tax proposal at a meeting of the full council on March 5.