Nottingham City Council to consider mothballing part of HQ – while 110 jobs could go

Nottingham City Council is to consider a range of measures to help cut its £32.2m budget deficit next week – including the temporary mothballing of part of its HQ and 110 job cuts.

The authority says its proposals, which include withdrawing the Shopmobility service at the Victoria Centre and increasing tariffs for EnviroEnergy customers, could help it generate £29m.

The council had been on track towards setting a balanced budget next year but said it has been “knocked off-course” by rising inflation and and energy costs.

Councils are required by law to set a balanced budget each year – but the Government is not due to announce until later this month how much it will provide councils towards their costs for the forthcoming financial year. The amount of Revenue Support Grant Nottingham City Council receives from Government has fallen from £126.8m a decade ago to £26.7m last year.

Proposals on the agenda at the council’s Executive Board meeting next Tuesday (20 December) include changes to adult social care, including more independent living support instead of residential or nursing care; reviewing fees for leisure centres and cafés; reviewing grants to community groups, community centres and cultural organisations, and stopping the collection of household bins put out on the wrong day.

The short-term mothballing of two floors of Loxley House will be considered pending a review of the council’s options for its offices and depots.

A workforce reduction of 110 full-time equivalent posts has also been mooted.

Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Finance, Cllr Adele Williams, said: “Most councils up and down the country are facing significant financial difficulties, and once again we are faced with some really difficult decisions about how we balance our budget next year. We have also looked in this budget process for ways in which we can become more efficient and effective with each pound we spend for Nottingham.

“Demand continues to grow for vital services such as adult social care, which now makes up over a third of the council’s entire budget. Proposals we are considering include making efficiencies by providing these services differently, along with savings from a range of other council services.

“Since 2010 we have had to make over £300m of savings to our budgets. With vastly diminished Government grants, we have got to seriously consider the 5% Council Tax increase allowed by Government, even though this wouldn’t raise enough to properly meet local needs, and it would sadly place a further burden on local people who we know are already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. For the vast majority of city residents, this would equate to between £1.25 and £1.46 more per week. When Nottingham households have lost out on average almost £700 of national funding since 2010, this rise is something we have been forced to consider.

“In this budget we have protected our ability to keep Nottingham communities safe with numbers of much-needed community protection officers not seen in other core cities. We have made sure that we will still be able to offer free events for families and a network of outstanding parks that will enable hard pressed Nottingham families to enjoy what they might otherwise struggle to afford to do.”