Mayor Joe warns of impact of fresh budget cuts

LIVERPOOL’S funding of economic development agency Liverpool Vision and its ability to spend on regeneration schemes will be further cut over the next three years, Mayor Joe Anderson has warned.

Reductions in funding from Westminster means the budget for some services, such as regeneration, could be cut by 50% over the next three years to meet the £156m required.

Liverpool, which has already made £173m of cuts over the last three years, says it is facing its biggest budget challenge to date.

Mayor Joe Anderson has been briefing council staff on the implications of the latest proposals. He announced that all mandatory services – those which the council is legally required to provide – have been asked to find savings of up to 25%. These include adults and children’s social care, environmental health and waste collection.

Services which the council is not legally required to provide – discretionary services – such as regeneration, leisure centres and cultural events have been asked to find budget savings of 50%.

Mayor Joe Anderson said: “This is really unpalatable and not what I or any of my team came in to politics to do. I know people will be worried about how they may be affected, and the truth is it will impact on every service in the city.”

He added: “Despite the challenges, it is vital we bear in mind there are still an awful lot of good things happening in the city – whether it’s the International Festival for Business or the 1,000 new private sector jobs we’ve helped attract recently through firms such as H2 Energy, BAC Mono, BT and Amey.

“We are working every single day to bring in more of those investment and employment opportunities.”

Details of the proposals are currently in development and are expected to be announced next month, followed by the city’s budget meeting on March 5.