Council Leader announces spending plans in face of unprecedented Government Cuts

Cllr Taylor, said, "For the next financial year our Government funding will be cut by £12 million. A further £10million in grants has still not been confirmed, while an additional Area Cost Adjustment could cost us £1.3million."

"This is the start of deep cuts - a reduction of 27% in funding.   This is made worse by the Government's decision to make over a third of these cuts in the first year. Taken together with significant increased pressures on council spending the Council is facing having to find cumulative savings of £138 million over the next four years."

"But we are still committed to freezing Council Tax in 2011/2012 to help residents in these difficult times."

The Enfield Spending Review 2011/2012 has now been published for consultation and details how Enfield Council plans to provide excellent value for money services for Enfield's people despite the financial challenges.

Cllr Taylor continued, "We will look for efficiency gains first and we will seek to do things in different ways if that proves to be more cost effective - indeed we have already agreed £10m of efficiency savings for 2011/12 through measures including better purchasing, increased electronic service delivery and the restructuring and review of our services."

However, the scale of the cuts means that difficult decisions are having to be made about the way we deliver services.

Cllr Taylor said, "We have to make tough choices to preserve Enfield's financial stability but we want to keep residents involved and informed about the challenges that we face.  We already have plans in place to cover the gaps in funding over the next four years which include changes to services such as adult social care, waste collection and the library service, sharing services with partner organisations and raising income by trading some of our services."

Cllr Taylor pointed out that there are additional pressures on council spending over the next four years including:

• Inflation and national insurance - increased by 1%
• Adult social care costs
• Waste disposal costs
• Treasury interest costs (interest on borrowing increased by 1%)
• Concessionary travel fares (cap withdrawn by Mayor of London)
  

He continued, "These pressures add up to £17.5million for 2011/12 just to keep up with demand and inflation."

Despite these pressures and the Government cuts Doug also outlined the measures Enfield Council is taking to help poorer families through the recession including:

• £100 council tax rebate to low income pensioner households in 2011/12
• Free school meals pilot
• Restoration of school uniform grant
• Additional funding for youth workers to engage with young people and help to reduce the risk of youth crime
• Establishing a residents' priority fund
  

Cllr Taylor, continued, "Over the past few months the council has carried out an in depth public consultation about budget priorities at events, libraries and online. Key partners and interest groups have also been asked to take part."

The budget consultation will continue at area forums and scrutiny panels in December and January and the Enfield Spending Review 2011/12 information and consultation is available on the Enfield Council website here.

Over 1,000 residents, a 500% increase on last year, have already given their views in this year's consultation.

Cllr Taylor, promised, "This consultation will influence our key decisions for spending and priorities in the council's budget in March 2011."