Cuts - Council is prepared for next two years

Date:  01 November 2010

You can expect a good range of highest quality services over the next two years. That's our message as we seek to reassure residents after the Government announcement of 7.1% cuts in local government funding each year for the next four years.

Council Leader Ann Shaw said:

"We are drawing up plans based on a 15% grant reduction over the next two years, and we have also taken into account the Council Tax freeze. The Government's announcement is in line with our assumptions - but that still means there are some tough decisions we will have to take over the coming months.

"Naturally our priority is to maintain services for the most vulnerable in our community and to ensure the highest standards in frontline services for everyone. Providing refuse and recycling services, street cleaning, award-winning parks and nature reserves and sports centres are just some of the services we will be protecting with great care."

Chief Executive Steven Halls said:

"We've had extremely careful financial management for a number of years and have saved more than £1M over the last two years. The total reduction over the next four years is higher than expected but we have two years in which to prepare for additional 3.4% savings."

We published last week 10 tips for you to help us to reduce our running costs and protect frontline services. In particular, we are urging everyone who has a computer to obtain routine information from this website rather than telephoning and also to sign up for e-newsletters.  

We reduced Council Tax by 0.5% last year and saved £1.24M in the last two years.

Full details of the Government grant, known as the Settlement, will be known by December. Councils receive an annual funding grant from the Government as well as raising funds directly through Council Tax. We, together with the Parish Councils, receive 14 pence in the pound from Council Tax. The remaining 86 pence goes to Hertfordshire County Council and Hertfordshire Police Authority.

Our 10 tips to help you help us save money and protect frontline services:

Use this website instead of ringing for routine information