Cuts are coming that will be ‘extremely challenging for residents’, City of York Council warned tonight (Wednesday).
Over the next four years “the council will see some of the most significant financial challenges it has ever experienced,” it said in a statement.
A report to the council’s executive committee says delivery of the council’s medium term financial strategy “will be extremely challenging for residents, partners, members, and officers and that the level of savings required over the next four years will inevitably require reductions in service levels and may result in some services stopping completely”.
The four-year financial strategy is designed to ensure that the city has a robust budget which allocates resources to the council plan priorities as far as possible.
But the new report has identified a budget gap of £40 million between now and 2027.
Leader of the council Claire Douglas said there was nothing in today’s Autumn Statement “which gets anywhere near easing the pressures on local council budgets across the UK.
“We have recently seen BBC reports that one in ten of England’s county councils is facing effective bankruptcy, and that follows on from the crises we have already seen in other councils.
“We are absolutely committed to the promises we agreed as a council in the new four-year plan, ‘One City for All’, but it is increasingly clear that if we are to maintain a balanced budget and if we are to keep this council afloat, we need robust financial management, clear priorities and a focus on cost control.
“There will have to be cuts, and a root and branch challenge to all council expenditure. There will have to be a hard look at the levels of capital investment.
“We will deliver our plan – we are already delivering our plan, and that includes supporting people who are being hit hard by the cost of living crisis – but we cannot do that alone, and we cannot do that with the financial resources we have now.”
Finance lead Cllr Katie Lomas added: “The people of York need to be in no doubt, since 2010/11 we have endured a reduction of 28.5% in real terms which, when you include funding for other public services, leaves us bottom of the funding table for local services.
“Government must do a lot more to support us, and if the extra help doesn’t come, we have some very serious problems to address.”
The financial report says that budget reductions of £10m are needed in 2024/25 to allow for known costs such as inflation and pay awards.
With growing increases in demand for social care services and continued cost of living inflation, the savings needed by the authority are higher than in previous years.