"Devil's in the detail' of £12m cuts, says council

The Government’s financial settlement, announced this week, was largely in line with what was expected.

Rotherham’s reduction of 4.97 per cent in spending power—the amount available to spend on providing services—for 2011/12 will equate to £12.8 million.

But the implications for services and residents are still being calculated.

The Localism Bill—at the heart of the coalition’s Big Society dream—is designed to shift power from Whitehall to town halls, reducing top-down control.

Communities and councils will be encouraged to take over some services, new rights will be granted over housing and the planning system “revolutionised.”

But Cllr Ken Wyatt, RMBC’s Cabinet member for resources, said: “The figures announced are just the headlines.

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“A lot of work is needed to fully analyse the detailed implications for the borough, which we believe will actually be more than the announced five per cent reduction.

“This is a complex settlement and the devil will be in the detail. There are many new concepts and uncertainties that need to be clarified with central Government before we can present the full picture.”

Cllr Wyatt added: “However, we do know that this will obviously have implications on the many services we provide.

“Officers will now work closely with members to minimise the impact as much as possible, a  continuation of the significant efficiency savings the authority has made in recent years.”

The council received the figures shortly before 6pm on Monday. Officers pored over the numbers until the early hours and councillors attended an all-party seminar at the Town Hall the next morning. Elsewhere in South Yorkshire, Doncaster Council faces losing 9.6 per cent (£29.2 million), Sheffield City Council 8.35 per cent (£48.8 million) and Barnsley 7.43 per cent (£17.3 million). The effects in Doncaster will be cushioned by a £2.1 million transition grant.

Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said: “The Localism Bill will herald a ground-breaking shift in power to councils and communities overturning decades of central government control and starting a new era of people power.

“It is the centrepiece of what this Government is trying to do. By getting out of the way and letting councils and communities run their own affairs we can restore civic pride, democratic accountability and economic growth and build a stronger, fairer Britain.”

Later, he described Rotherham’s reduction as “just” five per cent and said that he was confident the council was well prepared to restructure.

A further cut of 3.8 per cent in 2012/13 will reduce the council’s spending power by £9.3 million.

South Yorkshire Police—like all forces—will see a 5.1 per cent cut in general government grants for 2011/12 and 6.7 per cent the following year.

Chief executive and treasurer Bill Wilkinson said: “Grant cuts concentrated on the first two years will hit authorities such as South Yorkshire harder than most because we get most of our funding from the government grant.”

Government grants for South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority will be down 9.5 per cent next year and 3.4 per cent in 2012/13.

Chairman Jim Andrews said: “We expected that grants would be cut by five or six per cent next year and we have been planning on that basis.”

COMMENT--The Advertiser says:

People power promise in Localism Bill

IN CONTRAST with the Thatcherite iron grip on all things political, both national and local, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles appears to have paved the way for a coalition version of people power.

In seeking to deliver David Cameron’s post-election vision of the Big Society, Mr Pickles’ Localism Bill, published on Monday, is an invitation for communities across the country to take over responsibility for some services.

The announcement to transfer power from Whitehall to the town hall comes at a price—reductions in local authority spending—and all eyes will be on just where the axe will fall.

Warnings about cuts in public spending have been widespread for the last two years, the only questions being not if, but when and how deep.

However, Rotherham Borough Council chief executive Martin Kimber has been preparing for a longer period of austerity to meet government spending targets without delivering on detail.

Mr Pickles is looking for more inventive ways of financing councils, including the right to set up a bank and be legally allowed “to act in their own interest to innovate and work together to drive down costs.”

Among the provisions in the Bill, councils will be forced to publish their executive pay strategy for approval by elected members every year and allow ordinary people to prevent the closure of “community assets” such as post offices, libraries and leisure centres for six months while a group raises money to take them over.

And given the consternation over some of the borough council’s planning decisions, the proposal to grant permission where a majority of local people are in favour of a scheme could provide a democratic alternative to nodding through schemes which do not have the common consent of the people.

With a recollection coloured by warm nostalgia, Mr Pickles harks back to the distant days when local government had the power to make a difference, improving public health, cutting poverty and replacing slums with safe and secure housing.

But there seems to be something of a contradiction in his declaration that on the one hand now is the time to restore town halls to their former glory while on the other giving new rights to community groups.

And the more vocal of the borough council’s detractors will no doubt cast a sceptical eye on Mr Pickles’ expectation of councils becoming “much more open and transparent to local people.”

Given the borough council’s reluctance to share, never mind cede power to any organised body or individual outside the ruling Labour Group, the effectiveness of the

Localism Bill could receive an early test in Rotherham.

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However, the first priority is to devise ways of chopping nearly £13 million off the borough council’s budget next year, a process that is already underway.

But the reality is that local government is only playing catch-up with the private sector where painful budget cuts in the last two years or so have seen job losses, wage cuts and freezes and previously profitable firms going out of business.

The borough council, having acknowledged that redundancies are inevitable, is seeking volunteers and undergoing appraisals in all areas.

The day of reckoning has not come as a shock, but now that it has arrived, Council Tax payers as well as council employees have a right to know without delay just where the axe will fall.