13 November 2012

Southampton’s ‘painful’ budget includes nearly 300 job cuts


Laura Sharman

Southampton City Council has announced it will cut 279 full-time jobs in a bid to reduce the £20m deficit in its budget.

The council has published its ‘painful but necessary’ budget, which will also reduce library opening hours, stop youth services and see the closure of a children’s residential unit.

Leader of the council, Richard Williams, said: ‘This budget is painful, but necessary. We have managed to safeguard the most essential services, increase income equitably and where reductions have to be made, they have been made with care and with regard to maintaining the best possible service for the most possible people.’

The budget lays out savings of £18.1m, with nearly half coming from efficiencies and income generation. The council has also identified savings of £3.5m in its services contract with Capita in the coming financial year.

The council also explained the original funding gap has been caused in part by a reduction in Government grant of at least £9m, inflation and interest payments of £9m and the impact of one-off funds to balance the 2012/10 budget of £6m.



Your comments

To A Realist actually you are wrong many companies are sitting on large cash piles as profits have increased. We are in a recession caused not by public spending but by banks that required bailing out with public money, the consequence of this being massive cuts to LG funding. In addition we have widespread tax evasion & abuse by large compnies who refuse to pay anything towards public services. I'm sure you are aware Starbucks, Google Amazon, the list is too long to put all of them in here.

David Hambly, Added: Tuesday, 20 November 2012 12:01 PM

In a recession, private co revenues drop so they cut costs until equilibrium is reached, then ride it out. Otherwise, they run out of money. We're now in a PS recession. It needs to get on the front foot, find new ways to do things at less cost. Work smarter not harder. Redundancies are consequence of failure to re-plan and innovate. Constantly. In private sector, it never ends or goes away. That is now what the future holds with demand for PS rising. I do sympathise but there's no other way

A Realist, Added: Monday, 19 November 2012 05:33 PM

Realist - we've taken the hits: redundancies, budget cuts, service cuts; we're covering for those lost employees, trying to provide the same level of service for less money. Reality: 10-12hr days, 35yrs service and another 12 to retirement, with a small pension. I'm not complaining - but I don't spend my time riticising others less well off than myself.

Loccal Government employee, Added: Wednesday, 14 November 2012 04:36 PM

LG Employee, from where comes the money to pay for LG Svcs? Consumers have exercised a choice to spend LESS, not elsewhere. A public servant's duty now is to support them by doing more for less, not by cutting teachers & care workers, but box ticking bureaucracy, pointless mtgs, 6-hr wkg days, 35-day pa holidays, pensions that last longer than careers. Working families are suffering - I hear NONE of them complaining like PS workers. They're glad to have jobs, they don't regard them as a right.

A Realist, Added: Tuesday, 13 November 2012 04:37 PM

As tragic as it is for staff of Comet, JJB, Clintons, etc, the consumer has another choice, there are plenty of competitor retailers to choose from. Who will 'A Realist' find to empty his bins, sweep his streets, teach his children, when the men and women who provide those services have been 'cut' to keep down his Council Tax...?

Local Government employee, Added: Tuesday, 13 November 2012 02:24 PM

If this is war, who is the enemy?? Gordon Brown had what he thought was a coherent redistribution strategy. Let rich bank(er)s make obscene profits (the higher they were, the more self-congratulatory he was) tax them and use the proceeds to fund tax credits and more public services. The strategy failed with the financial crisis. The good times are gone. A deficit is not a veneer - failure to change and deal with it has an inevitable outcome. Everyone loses their job. Ask Comet, JJB, Clintons..

A Realist, Added: Tuesday, 13 November 2012 01:48 PM

Hi Patrick, Southampton has frozen council tax for 2012/13 - which will cost them ?2.1m

Laura Sharman, Editor, LocalGov, Added: Tuesday, 13 November 2012 01:41 PM

David's interpretation is correct and to illustrate the point Southampton should complete an impact assessment in terms of the local economic effects and the implications for diversity standards. Southampton is to suffer the closure of the Ford plant soon so these City redundancies are especially cruel. Is the Council freezing Council Tax next year?

Patrick Newman, ex local government, Stevenage, Added: Tuesday, 13 November 2012 01:26 PM

The deficit will be used as an ideological veneer for the wholesale destruction of public sector jobs. You need to fight them as this is war. They have come for your pension now they want your job as well. The tax paid by people to fund Local Authority services is now in the hands of bailed out bankers & you will have to pay with your job.

David Hambly, Added: Tuesday, 13 November 2012 12:07 PM



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