Woking Borough Council has outlined its “stark options” for making savings to address its budget shortfall.
Proposed reductions to public-facing discretionary services include the phased closure of a swimming pool; the removal of funding to arts, cultural and sports development; the removal of community grant funding; and the closure of public conveniences.
The delivery of certain discretionary services for residents, such as family centres and living well services, could also be transferred to alternative public sector organisations under the proposals.
Some discretionary services could remain if they “become ‘self-funding’ through the introduction of higher fees and charges”, the council said.
Internal measures that could help make savings include reducing ‘back-office’ services, management costs and reviewing Civic Office provision, the authority noted.
Recent resident engagement helped inform the development of the proposals, Woking said, and all proposed measures will be subject to further public consultation in October.
The proposals have been published in the council’s latest Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), which sets out the strategic financial approach required to deliver the council’s Improvement and Recovery Plan and tackle its “critical financial shortfall”. Woking was issued with a section 114 notice in June as it faced an “unbridgeable” £1.2bn funding deficit.
As at Q2 2023/24, budget savings of £8.5m against the previously agreed £12m target have been identified, the MTFS said. This would have closed the June budget gap of £10.9m to £2.4m, but following a “detailed review” additional costs relating to Woking’s historic investments have been identified “that have increased the scale of the financial challenge in both the current year 2023/24 and also next year 2024/25”.
The increase in costs identified next year is £8.3m, making the budget gap now £19.3m. Even with the £8.5m savings, this leaves a budget shortfall of £10.8m.
In the latest MTFS, new interim section 151 officer Eugene Walker stated: “The financial commitments that Woking Borough Council has created are beyond the capacity of an organisation its size to cope with.
“The Improvement and Recovery plan will put in place the basis for a minimum viable level of services but will not resolve the historic debt issues. To deal with that the plan also includes a significant review of the assets and companies that the council has created – the aim of this commercial work is to minimise further losses to the council and the wider public purse and to develop a plan to reduce the level of debt.”
“Woking BC has commenced this difficult work, but as this report shows, there is still much to do to firm up the level of financial challenge and ensure that the plan can deal with it.”
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Ann-Marie Barker, leader of Woking Borough Council, said: “This report proposes a series of stark options that will significantly impact the delivery of public services in Woking. These are not easy proposals to make but, due to the financial challenges that my administration inherited, we have little choice.
“Wherever possible, we have taken account of resident and stakeholder concerns and I want to thank them again for their feedback. These views have helped inform the proposals that, if adopted by council, will be presented for further public consultation in the autumn. However, the severity of the council’s financial situation means that in some cases decisions may be taken that do not align with residents’ views.
“I want to stress that at this point no decision has yet been made about the future of services. It will be for councillors to determine at a meeting of full council in February once further consultation work has concluded.
“It is clear that the future course we must follow is challenging. It requires the determination and resolve of councillors, the staff that support them, residents and stakeholders.
“The coming months will be difficult and I expect things will get worse before they get better. That said, I firmly believe Woking will recover stronger to become a council that delivers for its residents.”
The authority’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee will scrutinise the report and strategy during its meeting on Monday (11 September) before Woking Council’s Executive makes its recommendations on 14 September for adoption to Full Council on 28 September.
As reported, Woking was this week joined by Birmingham City Council in issuing a section 114 notice (6 September) after reporting that it faced insurmountable financial pressures.
Prominent factors which led to the financial downturn of Birmingham include costs associated with equal pay claims, implementation issues with its IT system and a lack of government funding.
Woking, by contrast, lays the blame on its historic investment strategy which it said had “resulted in unaffordable borrowing, inadequate steps to repay that borrowing and high values of irrecoverable loans”.
Several other councils have issued warnings about their perilous financial situation over the past few months, with some saying they might be forced into issuing a section 114 notice. Other councils which have also recently expressed financial concerns about balancing their budget include Suffolk, Cornwall, Stoke and Manchester.
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