'Difficult decisions ahead' warning as Calderdale Council faces having to make £40m in savings

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Calderdale Council has warned “difficult decisions lie ahead” as it faces having to make around £40m of savings over the next three years to balance the books.

But while aware of the task, likely to involve hard choices, senior councillors said they remained hopeful and ambitious for Calderdale’s development in the near future.

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Cabinet member for Resources, Coun Silvia Dacre (Lab, Todmorden) said adopting the medium term financial strategy was the first step of the annual budget process and will inform cabinet’s own recommendations in January, after which consultation on proposals begins.

All councillors will vote on setting the budget at the end of February.

Calderdale Councillor Silvia DacreCalderdale Councillor Silvia Dacre
Calderdale Councillor Silvia Dacre

This year it is exceptionally difficult to forecast and while it was hoped change of Government nationally will improve sustainability, its plans would not become clear until next year’s spending review, she said.

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The council had to be realistic in setting out its positions for a balanced budget.

Coun Dacre warned: “It’s a very challenging time.

“It will mean difficult decisions, because we won’t have the funds to do everything we are doing now.”

But she also said: “Despite the challenges, we remain hopeful and ambitious for the future of the borough.”

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It will also look to improve efficiency, getting best value for money.

The council’s cabinet agreed the use the strategy as the basis for formulating budget proposals and noted the risks it faces, and will update the full council on latest positions.

Unless anything changes, assumptions are that Council Tax will rise by around 4.99 per cent per year.

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Earlier in the questions-to-Cabinet section of the meeting, Coun Steven Leigh (Con, Ryburn) said the council should keep adding to its reserves to better deal with any future shocks.

Coun Dacre said it was prudent at this point not to include contributions to reserves for years two and three.

Financial decisions were taken by the full council, she said.

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Coun Howard Blagbrough (Con, Brighouse) said with spending cuts to the revenue budget – the council’s day-to-day spending – in prospect he was concerned about borrowing costs for capital projects.

Coun Dacre said the report highlighted some of these were essential for the council to function, for example its Information Technology (IT) systems.

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