Councils are legally required to set a balanced budget at the start of every year to meet financial responsibilities.
Over the next three years we will be required to make savings of £90 million with:
- £40 million in 2015-16
- £30 million in 2016-17
- £20 million in 2017-18
In October we published ‘Fair choices for tough times’ which outlined the latest assessment of the steps we need to take to respond to continued government cuts and cost pressures. This was the start of our process to develop and agree our budget for 2015-16 and look ahead to the savings required in future years.
We have now updated ‘Fair choices in tough times’ to include further information about our proposals to set a balanced budget and what this might mean for services. This will be discussed by Cabinet at a special meeting on 7 January and consultation on the proposals will take place until 31 January.
Budget 2015-16 documents:
- Fair choices in tough times
- Appendix 1 – Revenue and capital plan 2015-16
- Appendix 2 – Summary of investment in services 2015-16
- Appendix 3 – Summary of cuts and reductions to services 2015-16
- Appendix 4 – Cumulative impact assessment
- Draft detailed budget summary 2015-16
Proposals
We have developed budget proposals through a series of themes. Details of each proposal that may impact upon services are outlined within Integrated Impact Assessments (IIAs).
- Growth and jobs
- Newcastle: A great city
- Maintaining neighbourhoods
- Citizenship
- Housing
- Support for the most vulnerable people
- Inclusion
- Skills, aspiration and attainment
- Public health
- Enabling services
- Other – non-service specific proposals
We cannot reply to all pieces of feedback we receive, but we will a summary of all feedback in the final consultation report, which will be published on our website in spring 2015.
