Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

How is WC affected?

Andrew Kerr, the WC chief executive, has issued the following to staff and councillors...

'As you may be aware the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles announced this week a two year funding settlement for local authorities.

The settlement for Wiltshire will mean a reduction in grant of approximately £19.5 million over the next two years.

This means the council will need to find £58 million of savings over the next two years to cover the £19.5 million reduction and to meet the pressures it faces as a result of the ageing population, the current economic situation, and inflation costs not provided for in the settlement.

The funding settlement calculations are complex and based on two key areas; council tax payments and central government grant allocation. These two areas make up the total amount of money that the council has available to spend on its services.

Whilst the council tax payments will increase over the next two years – based on the growth of the number of houses and not an increase in council tax payment as this will remain frozen – the grant from central government has been substantially reduced.

Details around the funding cuts will continue over the next few days and the final details and implications for Wiltshire may not be known for some weeks yet.

As you are all aware we are currently working on a business plan that sets out proposals to deliver savings. We had expected the cuts to be greater in the first year and the news that the cuts will be spread over two years is welcomed, as it allows us a little more time to take action.

The proposals for making savings and investing in some services will be considered by Cabinet at their meeting on 8 February.

In the meantime, we are progressing with the management review and with other key areas of work including scoping services to see how savings can be achieved.

This work is still vital as we need to look at the next two to four years and not just at next year. We were planning for these cuts and whilst our estimates were in the right ball park we will still have to make some difficult decisions.

Whilst Wiltshire is still in a better place than many other local authorities, the cuts will mean some tough choices and decisions will need to be made.'