Budget Consultation
Minutes:
Councillor Richard Livingstone, Cabinet member for Finance and Resources, introduced the budget consultation: ‘the Southwark Spending Challenge.’ Cllr Livingstone explained the budget situation and that a large proportion of the money available to the council was provided by government funding which would be reduced significantly over the next three years. Cllr Livingstone asked residents for their input in setting the council’s priorities by taking part in the Southwark Spending Challenge.
Cllr Livingstone took questions from the floor relating to: how the consultation would feed into the decision making process, the impact of the underestimated population statistics for Southwark, the outsourcing of council services, the input of voluntary organisations, the need for the council to be radical in making savings and how the information gathered in the consultation will be made public.
In response Cllr Livingstone stated that: a decision on the budget and council tax would be taken by Council Assembly in February following recommendations by the Cabinet, the cabinet would be given the results of the consultation when making their recommendations. Cllr Livingstone explained that the council lost around £5 million a year in funding due to the inaccuracy of the census results, he stressed the importance of the survey and that the information gathered in the survey could only be used for that purpose. The revenues and benefit contract which had been outsourced would be brought back into the council from 1 April with the intention of improving the performance of the service. Some voluntary groups had been consulted, Cllr Livingstone acknowledge that the could need to work more sensibly with the voluntary sector to provide savings. Cllr Livingstone welcomed suggestions for making savings and explained that the results of the consultation would be available to the public.
Residents were given 27 red cheques (each representing 1 million of savings) and 7 green cheques (each representing 1 million of investment). Participants were asked to place their cheques in 8 boxes representing the different services delivered by the council. Participants were asked to write comments on the cheques explaining what they wanted the council to do.
When everyone had used all their cheques Cllr Livingstone gave a brief overview of some of the suggestions which had been made which included: outsourcing services, reduce overhead costs in regeneration, invest in prevention for problems on roads, invest in youth provision and utilising the voluntary sector more.
Cllr Livingstone thanked for their input into the consultation.