Cheshire East looks set to approve a cost-cutting plan to “transform” the council and save up to £91 million over the next four years as it struggles to stave off effective bankruptcy, writes Belinda Ryan.
The cash-strapped council needs to plug a £100 million funding gap by 2028.
A report to next week’s meeting of the corporate policy committee warns: “Failure to do so will mean that the council will need to issue a s114 notice, effectively declaring itself bankrupt.”
Cheshire East has employed Inner Circle Consultancy to work with senior officers and councillors to come up with cost-saving and income-generating measures as part of the transformation programme.
According to the report, over the past 12 weeks “more than 100 opportunities have been identified, with potential savings identified in the range of £59 million to £91 million over the next four financial years”.
It says these figures do not include a range of digital projects that have an estimated £14 million benefits.
Some of the projected savings are in areas the council is already known to be looking at, such as the possibility of three-weekly black bin collections and remodelling library provision across the borough.
Others include the use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) to enforce traffic contraventions and generate income; a hike in fees and charges for council services; and a review of properties that have been renovated or extended to uplift council tax bands.
Another suggestion is to invest in building specialist housing provision for people with learning disabilities, care leavers and potentially frail elderly to reduce long-term demand and cost pressures.
Other key aims include reducing the use of high cost agency staff and replacing with permanent recruits where appropriate, as well as making “concerted efforts to reduce the current high staff absence rates and increase overall productivity of the workforce”.
The high staff absence rates were highlighted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service earlier this week before this report was published.
A freedom of information request submitted by the LDRS revealed that more than half the council’s staff had time off sick in the calendar year 2022 and again in 2023.
Over the two year period this had resulted in the council paying out more than £704,000 to agency workers to cover for staff sickness and resulted in 63,644 lost working days.
Cheshire East has agreed to set aside up to £3 million to fund phase two of the transformation programme.
The report states: “This will be funded through existing reserves of the council in the first instance….
“Without this investment, the council will not have the capacity to deliver the required level of savings that have been identified in the medium term financial strategy, of at least £100 million over the life of the MTFS.”
As previously reported, Cheshire East Council has very low general reserves which were put at just £5.6 million at the end of the 2023/24 financial year.
The council must submit a transformation plan to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) before it can access the £17.6 million exceptional financial support it applied to the government for earlier this year.
The plan has to be submitted by August 27.
The corporate policy committee is expected to approve the plan at next week’s meeting, which takes place at 5.30pm on Wednesday, August 21 at the council’s HQ at Westfields in Sandbach.
I read in the local papers about all the extra payments the different councillors can claim for doing things, Well I am not surprised that the CEC is going broke! The thousands and thousands is totally beyond a joke. One claiming big money is one saying he is giving up as it does not meet his living costs? what? where? does he live on cloud cuckoo land. Then temps on £1k a day? what. No they waste money with people to tell them what to do? when will the stupidity end? The WFH mob who claim for this, that and the other cannot claim for things if they fail to attend the office where they work, and then their pay can be reduced for not attending the office. The next time they say data protection, and ask you questions, refuse, as they could well be sitting outdoors with other people milling around, and all the information they have open on their laptops, can be viewed by anybody, therefore data protection is violated, Big style. CEC is a major joke when it comes to balancing the books, money went to their heads, and allowed many things to be abused costing thousands, well the truth has now come home, it does not matter who they put into the CEO job, the major damage is already done.
Hi Barry, no speed cameras on A51 where I mentioned. No-one wants to do anything about it, raised the issue with Police and local area, so main government not getting any revenue from that area. Maybe that would be a answer to the issue and put speed cameras on over main road in the CEC area, so that it generates income over a longer period.
Sorry Ronx the ANPR cameras relate mostly to parking fines which can go to the council, speed cameras generate revenue to main government, or I am sure there would be a speed camera on ever road in Cheshire East
So basically you are telling me you have brought in an outside agency at great expense to tell our overpaid executives how to do there jobs,which is to run the council in an efficient cost affordable manner.
The proposals put forward are mostly laughable, basically reduced services put up council tax and charge more for any services which are left.
I think we are looking at the wrong end of the stick here,we need to reduce the staffing costs as the first step of any cost saving ideas,by having to bring in an outside agency to come up with ideas tells me the top people in the council are and never have been fit for purpose.
Still a labour run council with a labour government, what could possibly go wrong,winter fuel payment anyone!!!!!!
Every time I see council workers no matter what time of day they are always sitting in there vans . Maybe we could start by getting them to do the work they are paid to do. That also goes for the council office staff.
Frankly the leadership needs to change along with the culture of CE. The leadership is responsible for the financial mess and how CE works, they also are responsible for the culture of CE . Simply putting a plan out and hoping for change does not work. They are in desperate need for help otherwise the same problem will in fact get much worse . To be blunt help will cost money in the short term, failure to bring in help and accept the change needed will cost significantly more
Honestly CEC you are absolutely useless. How do you think that home owners can sustain any potential increases in re-evaluation of council tax bands. Applaud ANPR, if you put that in area between Airfield roundabout, down toward Barbridge, you would rake in money on that particular stretch of A51 – traffic speeding is horrendous. Big 1.38 million saving, would be in NOT paying Councillors over exorbitant expenses claims.