Council sets out plans for retreat

The move to one council has left Wiltshire in a weakened position to face the funding reductions being announced by the government, and the chief executive has announced a programme of redundancies, cuts and increases in charges to attempt to reduce the deficit. The council will also attempt to shunt costs onto other organisations including the voluntary sector.

Council boss Andrew Kerr said: "Our role as a local council will change - we will provide fewer services and take on a more enabling role helping local communities to do more for themselves and be a lot less reliant on public services. This will mean we will become smaller and we will employ less people (sic) over the next few years."

The central government funding cuts are likely to be around £122 million over the next four years, equivalent to 3% of the gross budget and 9% of the net budget. WC gross budget for the next 4 years is £3.4 billion and net budget for same period is £1.3 billion. The cost of redundancy payments and the increase in demands on social services will together cost another £100 million over the four years.

Mr Kerr also claims the council will spend £124 million on "Investing in priorities and protecting the vulnerable." There is a lack of clarity on what this means, but the figure is broken down into:

£44m into improving and delivering new services such as waste and recycling, leisure, new housing, broadband access and children's attainments in school and our local communities.

£40 million into protecting the vulnerable. This will be spent on adults and children's social care, though curiously 'energy efficiency' and 'the economy' fall under this heading.

£40 million to keep the council tax low. Despite saying the move to one council would save money Wiltshire Conservatives have ratcheted up the council tax in recent years. Now the government is asking councils to freeze their council tax levels for the next 2 years so this option is no longer there.

In the shorter term the council needs to cut budgets by £40 million by next April. £16 million will come from staffing cuts - about 240 unnecessary managers will go, and the number of agency staff and consultants will be reduced to save around £5 million. Existing staff may be asked to take pay cuts. Mr Kerr is promising to save £9 million by being less wasteful in the way goods and services are purchased. The council spends around £354 million per year on goods and services. "We want to be more businesslike in how we purchase to reduce costs and be more efficient," he said.

The council also wants to increase its income generation by £1 million, so fees and charges to the public, including parking charges, will go up yet again.

In the longer term the process of asset-stripping the old district council properties will continue. "We will rationalise our buildings from 95 to 4 or 5 main hub offices. This means we will reduce our revenue spend through reducing the level of maintenance and utility costs and we will increase our capital through land and property sales," said Mr Kerr. However the problem the council has is that property prices are low at the moment, so the council is faced with the prospect of selling at cut rates or holding on to property until prices rise.