Planning slump prompts budget cuts

LIVERPOOL City Council is planning to cut £321,000 from next year’s budget to reflect a slump in planning applications.

And it wants to save £400,000 by reviewing its business support and grant administration processes.

The proposed £482.1m budget for 2009-10, which will be considered at a full council meeting on January 28, contains a string of cuts designed to save £4.4m from particular services.

Some departments will get an extra £4.8m under the proposals and the council has earmarked efficiency savings worth £13.7m.

A spokesman said planning applications dropped by 7% in 2008 and “major” submissions declined by 30% as the economy began to nosedive.

He said the larger, time-consuming jobs attract the most revenue for the council so their decline meant the department had to be pruned. No redundancies are expected but the staff structure will be reviewed.

Business support and administration processes will also be reviewed following the closure of existing grant schemes such as the European Union-funded Objective One.

The spokesman insisted this was not a cut to the city’s business support network but reflected a reduction of grant-related paperwork. 

Further planned cuts include: £80,000 off the St George’s Hall subsidy; £240,000 from libraries; £250,000 from sport and recreation and £300,000 from environmental health.

Gainers include the Liverpool Culture Company which will get an extra £2.5m to put towards its Capital of Culture “legacy” work.

The company, which handled last year’s extravaganza, is drawing up its legacy programmes and is seeking around £6m from Europe.

The council said the culture year brought £800m in to Liverpool’s economy and it wants to use the event to, “encourage inward investment, business relocation, European funding opportunities, and recognise the positive effect of a forward looking cultural offer on the economic and social development of the city.”