Leeds City Council Leader James Lewis explains authority's financial position as cost-saving measures unveiled

Yorkshire Evening Post

Cash-strapped Leeds City Council has unveiled a series of cost-saving measures as it seeks to avoid bankruptcy – and leaders admit the axing of services is unlikely to be popular.  Cllr James Lewis explained the reasoning behind the sweeping budget proposals for 2024/25, which include the closure of buildings, new car parking charges and the equivalent of 750 jobs at the authority being done away with.  People in the city can also expect a council tax rise from April.

Transcript

00:00 Councillor James Lewis and I'm leader of Leeds City Council.

00:03 So you've explained today that the council is in a really difficult financial position

00:07 and you've set out a series of what are likely to be really unpopular measures.

00:13 They include the closure of a council run care home, consultations on bringing in parking

00:18 charges in places like Roundhay Park and the council having to axe the equivalent of 750

00:24 jobs.

00:25 So that's going to be on top of people in Leeds having to pay more council tax.

00:29 What would you say to someone in Leeds who'd be asking, why am I paying more council tax

00:34 to get less from the council?

00:37 We're in a position as a council where we have to deliver a balanced budget every year.

00:42 So that means all the council's incomings, government grant, council tax, business rates,

00:48 fees and charges for services has to match the money we spend on providing council services.

00:54 What we've seen over the last 10 years is all that mix of income, government grants

00:59 has dropped from nearly 40% down to just about 5%.

01:02 So that share that people are paying in council tax, we're having to stretch further and further

01:07 to cover the cost of the same services.

01:09 And that's been a trend that's been happening now for a while and it is absolutely fair

01:14 to say that council tax is covering more and more and therefore people are getting less

01:19 for what they're paying because of the reductions in government grant.

01:23 What we've faced over the last couple of years is massively rising inflation like everybody

01:27 else, so the council's got a gas bill and electricity bill, fuel to do things like run

01:32 the bin wagons in Leeds and the price of that has gone up.

01:35 And we've also had a massive increase in demand for social care, particularly children's social

01:40 care.

01:41 And all that has to be met from the same amount of money that we've always had.

01:45 So we've got rising prices, rising demand, a reduction in government grant and the requirement

01:51 to set a balanced budget every year.

01:53 So that's why services have been reduced in some areas, we'll see some facilities closing

01:58 overall, other facilities will have shorter opening hours and we'll see less people working

02:04 for the council over time because we have to provide a balanced budget.

02:09 We've seen a reduction in government grant, we've got a lot of pressures on prices like

02:14 everybody else and we all have to get that to the point where at the end of the year

02:20 the money comes in and has to match the money going out.

02:24 There have been words thrown around to describe the financial position at Leeds City Council

02:28 like dire today.

02:31 What's got you into that position?

02:33 What's got us into that position is that we continue, we have to provide essential services

02:40 like keeping the city clean, emptying people's bins, trying to keep up with road maintenance.

02:46 We have to look after some of the most vulnerable people in the city of all ages through life

02:49 from babies and children through to older people and we have to also support our communities

02:55 in Leeds and we're doing that with a reduced amount of money every single year.

02:59 The council income has changed over time as we've seen a reduced government grant so we

03:04 have to look at stretching people's council tax further and further as well as charging

03:09 for more services and putting those charges up.

03:12 So that's the position councils are in at the moment.

03:15 All councils whether they're Labour run like Leeds or Conservative run like the county

03:19 councils are all saying the government, particularly around looking after children's social care

03:25 and children with special educational needs, the government should be putting more money

03:30 into those services so the rest of the council funding can cover other services but so far

03:35 they've not listened to us and that's why we've got into the position we have today.

03:40 The threat that looms is Leeds City Council having to declare bankruptcy like we've seen

03:46 with some other big local authorities.

03:49 How confident are you that that's not going to happen in Leeds?

03:53 The proposals we've published today are for a balanced budget in that our outgoings will

03:59 be met by our incomings and that's a position where we avoid having a section 114 notice

04:04 which is issued when a council has more spending than it does income.

04:09 The consequences, the budget proposals today will have an impact on the city, I'm not going

04:14 to run away from that, it's going to have an impact on people in the city.

04:17 The consequences of not setting a balanced budget are even more dire than that.

04:22 Other councils who have got in that position have had massive council tax rises, they've

04:26 seen commissioners coming in to cut services and they've seen a real negative impact on

04:31 what happens in the city so that's why we're desperate to avoid a section 114 notice but

04:36 it does mean we have to set a balanced budget and run a balanced budget and that means we're

04:40 taking unavoidable and unpopular decisions to get to that point.

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