Unison slams Suffolk County Council over proposals to cut £64.7m – including £11m in staffing costs

A union has slammed Suffolk County Council over proposals to make nearly £65m in cuts, including £11m in staffing costs, over fears they could take services ‘past breaking point’.

Yesterday, Suffolk County Council offered a glimpse into what its budget for 2024/25 could look like, which would include injecting £74m into adult and children’s care over a period of two years.

However, the authority, which overspent by £28m last year and was not awarded enough money to match inflation, announced plans to make £64.7m in cuts.

About £11m from this will be through reduced staffing costs, which Cllr Richard Rout, Suffolk County Council’s deputy leader, said would be done by not filling vacancies and re-prioritising workloads.

And while it wished to keep redundancies to a minimum, some would be necessary.

In response, Unison has called the council out, feeling the cuts could take services ‘past breaking point’.

Neil Bland, Unison’s secretary for Suffolk, said: “Councils have spent the last decade slashing spending to the bone, cuts on this scale will take services in Suffolk past breaking point.

“It’s still too early to say exactly where the axe will fall, but cuts on this scale will mean hundreds of job losses.

“This will be a disaster for council workers as well as the people relying on the services they provide.

“Even if the council manages to avoid or minimise compulsory redundancies, remaining staff will have unmanageable levels of extra work piled on them. Communities across Suffolk are sure to feel the hit.

“But cuts are inevitable unless Westminster stops starving local government of desperately needed funds.”

For the 2024/25 financial year, the council will have a budget of about £752 million, made up of Government funding, business rates, charges for services and council tax.

Of this, £105m will be for cost pressures due to inflation.

Cllr Rout said the authority joined national calls for more funding and lobbied the Chancellor of the Exchequer directly.

During a press briefing yesterday, Cllr Rout described this year as one of the most difficult the authority had faced in terms of setting its budget, but wanted to put adult and child support at the heart of its plans.

He said: “We make no apologies for wanting to prioritise those most in need in our society.

“What we need to spend on adult and child care outstrips inflation and Government funding, which requires difficult decisions to be made.

“To get this funding, we need to make savings elsewhere.”

Other cuts include slashing arts and museum funding, the closing of the East and West Suffolk Archives branches, and reductions to dozens of services.

In addition to the cuts, Council Tax will also rise by about 4.99 per cent.

Suffolk County Council’s budget proposals will undergo scrutiny next week, and will be debated at its full council meeting on February 15.