23 September 2009
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Making savings with ‘no cost’ to services


Mark Conrad

Two councils have announced efficiency savings running into millions of pounds that will not hit public services.

As national politicians argued over where the spending axe should fall, Newham LBC and new unitary Cheshire West and Chester Council revealed plans to overhaul costs.

Newham revealed the latest stage of a three-year cost-cutting drive which is on track to save £23m in this financial year and £31m in 2010-11.

Relocating to a single back-office headquarters, reducing staff posts by 700 and tackling chronic absence have been key to making the savings.

Joe Duckworth, Newham’s chief executive, said: ‘We are driving down administrative costs, which have allowed significant sums to be invested next year in cleaner and safer streets, the top priorities for residents. Against this, the authority has been able to deliver a 0% increase to council tax while investing in the services that residents want. Unnecessary layers of management have been removed to improve decision-making and reduce bureaucracy.

‘This has enabled us to identify £70m in savings over a three-year period, in addition to ensuring productivity is increased, ncluding channelling an additional £10m into helping make streets safer and roads cleaner.’

Cheshire West and Chester Council announced a major structure review designed to slash costs while improving frontline services.

A report revealed 466 staff have been granted voluntary redundancy and will leave the authority by 30 September.

It will cost the council an estimated £19m – to be funded with the help of  £5.5m from general reserves, but will generate annual savings of £13.5m a year.

Council leader, Mike Jones, stressed: ‘The important criteria in making these difficult decisions have been that no frontline service will be affected and prudent management of our finances to keep council tax below the level of inflation.’



Your comments

A good article and a good point John. Trying to improve service delivery in a service that is already 99% efficient in the way it delivers can only be achieved by using a different method of delivery. So innovation and invention may be the key to this.

Dominic Macdonald-Wallace, Director of Learning and Development, Shared Service Architects, Added: Friday, 25 September 2009 08:20 AM

I'm not suggesting that this applies to these councils, but it's easiest to make efficiency savings if you're inefficient to start with. The best value duty to improve had a similar incentive to start off rubbish so you could improve in leaps and bounds. Pity the poor old top quality council which has already made itself super-efficient, giving excellent vfm! Where on earth are they going to find savings?

John Emms, retired Solicitor to the Council Kirklees MC, Added: Thursday, 24 September 2009 05:23 PM



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