Action to Tackle Funding Crisis Caused by Government Cuts

Bedford Borough Council is taking further action to balance the books in the face of brutal government cuts in funding for local services.

The government cuts will see the Council's main grant cut from £30 million in 2015 to under £6 million in 2019, in spite of a sharply rising need for services.

Since 2010, Bedford Borough Council has had to make savings of £90 million, due to the combination of unprecedented government cuts and rising cost pressures. With further punishing government cuts continuing alongside the growing need for social care services, the Council must deliver further ongoing savings of £27.5 million per year by 2020.

Mayor Dave Hodgson's Executive has approved plans to help bridge the gap in funding as well as continuing to work on a number of savings initiatives.

Commenting, Mayor Dave said: "Punishing Government cuts have created a full-blown funding crisis for local services. Tough decisions are now unavoidable, as the impact of relentless, ongoing cuts combines with growing need for social care services.'

"Residents can be assured that we will do all we can to minimise the impact on local residents, particularly those most in need of care and support."

Key initiatives include the Council's Digital Transformation Plan, which is already well underway. The digitalisation of Council services and the new online systems seek to make savings of £10 million while also providing services more focused on residents needs with more services available online 24/7.

The Council is also looking at further savings in the way it buys in services.

Reviews of key areas are continuing across the Council. The Council's Executive approved two major programmes at its latest meeting, namely the Library Strategy 2017-2022, which looks at the ways the library service will be delivered for the next 5 years; and changes to the frequency of black bin collections, with Bedford Borough forced to join the vast majority of local authority areas in collecting every other week after the government removed the Weekly Collection Support Fund in addition to its massive cuts in the council's general funding.

On top of increasing cuts from the government, an ageing population means more people need help from the Council in their later years, and Mayor Dave and the Liberal Democrats will not turn their backs on older and vulnerable members of the community.