Government funding has left Cambridgeshire County Council a whopping £11 million worse off, says council leader Steve Count.
One of the reasons is the Government’s refusal to fund the introduction of the Living Wage to council employees that will cost the authority an extra £6 million a year.
Cllr Count emailed councillors days before Christmas to tell them: “This is a brief note to let you know that the county council is £11m worse off, compared to the figures we based our savings on before the autumn budget and our settlement figures were released.
“The budget did not cover the cost of the New Living wage which we had expected and that has a £6 million implication.”
He added: “Our settlement under the new methodology was also £5 million less than we anticipated.
“As part of the settlement figures there was some commentary that lower tier authorities’ grant would be re-directed over to upper tiers, but I can assure you that Cambridgeshire County Council is not a beneficiary.”
He enclosed “some more helpful analysis by way of explanation which is encapsulated in the following statement ‘all shire counties, even though they have care responsibilities, have lost funding to the benefit of metropolitan and London authorities.
“As the statement and the actual figures for Cambridgeshire at first sight appear contradictory I feel it would be helpful if you would circulate this to your members so they can understand our pressures are not only continuing but have in fact increased, since we drew up our initial draft savings plans.”
The county council is faced with finding savings of £100 million over the next five years.
At their last meeting before Christmas, county councillors debated – but rejected- the idea of sending a letter to Prime Minister Dave Cameron about the cuts.
Lib Dem councillor Lucy Nethsingha said: “The time has come when we should not be looking to austerity. We should be looking to invest in infrastructure, in order to support growth.”
Conservative councillor James Palmer said: “Until we get our house in order, until we run the most efficient, the most sensible council that we can, we cannot stand up and blame Government.”
And Labour councillor Ashley Walsh said: “I remember spending the last year of the Labour Government being told by the Conservatives that they supported every single one of our spending commitments.
“George Osborne came out just before the 2007 election and said we support every single penny that the Labour Government has spent.”
A vote on whether to send the letter was lost – 25 agreeing it should be sent, 31 voting against the idea.
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