200 jobs to go as Nottingham City Council reaches “tipping point”

Some 200 jobs are set to be axed at Nottingham City Council after the organisation blamed central Government budget cuts and the rising costs of adult care.

The Council says it has had its grant funding cut in half over the last three years, meaning it has had to identify £21m of savings. This still leaves it £6m short of the £27m of savings it needs to make for next year’s budget.

Increasing demands for caring for the elderly, disabled and children means the budget for these services will rise significantly this year. But these services now make up 61% of the Council’s entire budget – meaning the funding for other services like leisure, highways and parks is being “drastically squeezed”.

The Council says it will increase Council Tax by 4.9% and make 200 people redundant to try and meet its savings target.

Nottingham City Council’s deputy leader, councillor Graham Chapman, said: “The Government has reduced the amount of grant funding it provides the council by half in the last three years alone and by a staggering 80% since austerity started in 2010, meaning it is dumping the financial burden for providing local services such as care for the elderly and disabled on local taxpayers. We have tried to manage but have reached a tipping point, where we have to make the really difficult decisions we have been warning about. Austerity has costs.

“Not only that but the Government has continued to treat Nottingham unfairly, with local households losing more than affluent areas, and missed Nottingham out in favour of richer places down south when handing out special funds to soften the blow of cuts.

“Unless the Government comes up with funding to plug the gap it has created in caring for the elderly and disabled, we will be forced to find ways to make further savings in the New Year, which inevitably will mean that other services will unfortunately suffer.”