A fair budget for the many, the poor and struggling middle

Cllr Taylor said: "This Council has delivered a fair budget for the many, while battling to protect the most vulnerable in the aftermath of the most savage and deepest government cuts in living memory. 

"There will be pain for some I am afraid but we have kept our promise not to increase Council Tax and protect bread and butter services like weekly waste collections and street sweeping, which affect all of us, rich or poor and the struggling middle.

"We have strived to make Enfield a fairer place to live.  We will deliver on free school uniform grants and provide millions more for local communities funds so local people can spend their money on their local priorities.

"There is still some hard work ahead and difficult decisions as further cuts are imposed upon us. But overall this budget is good for key services, our economy, and keeps the Council financially stable in order to deliver services in a precarious economic future."

The Council will have to find £35m in savings this year across many services.

Cllr Andrew Stafford, cabinet member for finance said: "Because of the loss of millions from the government, especially in direct grants, we may have to review the provision of early intervention services and look at how we can best deliver our library services."

But Cllr Stafford said the vast majority of savings could be made by modernising Enfield Council through:

- Better procurement saving around £6m
- Rationalising and centralising customer services saving £3m
- Dumping duplication and streamlining services by slashing red tape saving £7.5m

Cllr Stafford said: "We will drive down costs and push through our modernisation agenda by scrapping old outdated working practices and bringing in and accelerating hot desking and working from home which will massively reduce building costs and overheads."

But Cllr Stafford said there will be job losses.

He said: "We have had a purge on highly paid consultants and have cut one director's post along with the 200 overall posts being deleted. I am comfortable that we will restrict the number of actual redundancies to around 60, but we are not complacent about the impact of any job losses on Enfield's economy."