More than 100 Nottingham City Council job cuts planned amid £32m budget gap

Even more staff cuts and tax hikes are being proposed as Nottingham City Council looks to bridge a £32m budget gap.

The authority will present a new budget and medium term financial plan next week.

It sets out targets for the next four years, and will be discussed at an Executive Board meeting on Tuesday, December 20.

The council is proposing a number of measures to help make savings to fill £29m of the hole.

The overall budget gap is £32.2m - with the current proposals leaving a further £3.2m of savings to be addressed by February 2023.

These include the axing of 110 full-time equivalent job posts, a five per cent tax rise and an end to the collecting of household bins which have been put out on the wrong days.

The measures come on top of previously-announced changes to children’s centres, youth services and applying charges to parking permits and bulky waste collections.

Council documents point towards the vast proportion of pressures arising from a reduction in Government grants.

Since 2013/14 a revenue support grant from the Government has reduced from £126.8m to £26.7m, or almost £700 per resident.

While this year’s figure represents a rise over the £25m the council received each year between 2019/20 and 2021/22, it remains significantly lower than the grant a decade ago.

But the council’s opposition has argued the pressures are also down to its own financial failures.

The council has lost large sums of money in the collapse of Robin Hood Energy, roughly £38m, as well as almost £3m amid the liquidation of the Nottingham Castle Trust and around half of the £18m invested in the Broadmarsh site after shopping centre owners intu entered administration in 2020.

The council is being closely monitored by a Government-appointed improvement board which is checking its current spending and future financial planning.

Councillor Kevin Clarke, Nottingham Independents councillor for Clifton East and the leader of the opposition group of Independent councillors, said: “I dread to think what the new council tax will be now the government have permitted them to increase to five per cent.

“This council has increased the council tax every year whilst cutting front line services.

"Hopefully they will pay at the ballet box come May, if we would have had the £50 million they have thrown down the drain the past few years we may have not had to sacrifice the workforce.”

"Once again we are faced with some really difficult decisions about how we balance our budget next year.

The council’s Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Finance, Councillor Adele Williams, who represents the Sherwood Ward for Labour, says the authority faces some “really difficult decisions”.

In the second quarter of 2022/23, the budget being presented to the December Executive Board shows a £11.4m black hole.

This is a reduction from the £13.2m hole in the first quarter of 2022/23.

They say a significant portion of this has arisen from the need to pay council workers more amid the cost of living crisis.