Southampton City Council has published its budget proposals for the next financial year, against what it says is "the backdrop of reducing government grants, rising demand for council services and increasing costs".

 

The full budget report and proposals are available from the council as a PDF download from this link.

Of particular interest to some locally will be the reference to libraries (points 35-36 on page 8), which says that the council proposes to conduct a comprehensive consultation and review of the service to deliver savings for the year 2015/16 and beyond.

The following, on the proposals generally, is in the council's own words:

The council faces the challenge of balancing the books in a year that will see central government funding reduce significantly. Spending has already been reduced by £57 million in the last three years.

Next year's shortfall was initially estimated at £20.4million. However, after utilising one-off funding of £4.2m, the remaining gap stood at £16.2m. Allowing for the savings proposals published this week - plus the £1.3m of proposed savings within the People Directorate (as set out in the report to Council on 18 September) - the draft budget still shows a shortfall of £1.4m. Work is continuing to identify options for closing this gap so that the council can set a balanced budget next February.

Including the remaining budget shortfall, the council still faces the challenge of finding further savings of around £49.5m by 2016/17.

In preparing the budget proposals, the council has been keen to understand what resident's priorities are. Through the recent 'Your City, Your Say' survey we have listened to residents and have used this feedback to help shape the proposals published today.

The survey results told us that residents want to see services for children protected, particularly those aimed at supporting vulnerable children and young people. As a result this year's budget proposals include a relatively small reduction in the overall spend on Children's Services, to allow the council the time needed to transform the way services are delivered while still ensuring improved outcomes for children and young people.

The council remains committed to protecting the vital frontline services that residents depend upon, so the amount of savings achieved through efficiencies – improving the way the council works – in next year's budget proposals outweigh any savings made through reducing services.

Inevitably though, when faced with such a significant budget shortfall, some of the proposals will impact on staffing. However, the Administration has made a concerted effort to limit the impact on staff as far as possible.

As part of the budget setting process, the next stage of consultation opens today to seek residents' views on the proposals and to hear suggestions for alternative ways to save money. A survey will be available to complete online and in council venues from Tuesday 19 November.

Cllr Stephen Barnes-Andrews, Southampton City Council's Cabinet Member for Resources, said: "Like anyone, the council must live within its means and over the last few years we have had to make huge savings as our funding from central government has significantly reduced.

"This is set to continue for the next few years and as demand for some of our services continue to rise and costs go up, the gap between the money we have coming in and our outgoings is increasing.

"As a result of the savings made over the last few years, we now have less and less choice about how we make further savings and what we cut. However, we want to ensure that we have fully considered the impact on residents and that we have explored every possible option available to us.

"We are absolutely committed to protecting frontline services and are continuing to fight for every bit of funding wherever possible, while working hard to attract investment into the city and looking at new ways of generating income.

"That's why we're asking residents whether we are making the right choices, or if there are money saving ideas out there that we've yet to consider. This is an opportunity for people to let us know if they have any better suggestions to balance the books.

"We know that we have to transform the way we deliver services and this means making difficult decisions about the services we continue to provide."