Next round of cuts to be discussed at Cabinet
Up to 700 jobs in total are likely to be lost at Ealing Council as a result of a new round of cuts.
Three hundred council staff have been put at risk of redundancy and consultation has begun with affected employees.
This latest bleak job news follows the deletion of 400 positions over the last year. This includes a reduction in senior posts that cut management costs by £2million. The council has put in place restrictions on recruitment and will try and redeploy staff to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies.
The authority has to make £85million in savings by 2015 and has just announced plans for a further £30.8million in budget cuts - if approved, this would take the council more than three-quarters of the way to meeting the target.
They say the priorities are to protect children and the most vulnerable so functions like HR and finance are being hardest hit, with reductions of 25%, while children’s and social care services are being asked to find 10% in savings over the next couple of years.
£3million will be allocated to services such as social care and housing which will include an extra £1million to provide help for people in severe and critical need.
There will also be £250,000 more to tackle disreputable landlords who rent out back garden sheds as homes.
Money has also been put aside to help people adversely affected by the government’s changes to housing benefit to pay for bed-and-breakfast and other accommodation. The council will also contribute £85,000 to fund the borough’s Rape Crisis Centre.
Council Leader, Councillor Julian Bell said:
''We are facing unprecedented cuts in government funding that has left us with no choice but to make some really difficult decisions. Our priority throughout has been to protect front-line services and the most vulnerable people in our community, which I hope most people will agree is the right thing to do.
''We have acted decisively. We have looked at every line of our budget to find efficiencies, drive down costs and improve productivity. We are also sharing expertise and buying power with other councils. This latest round of savings, if agreed, will take us much nearer our £85million saving target.
''I know that some changes won’t be liked but, sadly, there are no easy options given the level of cuts that are needed.''
24th November 2011
You can find the agenda for the Cabinet meeting which will be discussing the cuts (29th November) here
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