Council budget plan unchanged by grant announcement

Shropshire Council said the settlement would lead to further cuts

Shropshire Council's budget plan - involving a near 5% council tax rise - remains unchanged after the government announced its funding settlement.

Ministers said on Monday councils would be able to spend 6.5% more next year, as long as they raised taxes by the maximum amount of 4.99%.

Gwilym Butler, the councillor in charge of finances, said the settlement fell short of money needed to avoid cuts.

The council has started a consultation, warning of a "very difficult task".

Meanwhile, opposition councillors at the Conservative-run authority have said they are being left in the dark about how consultants have been used to make savings.

Council leader Lezley Picton defended the use of £3m to employ Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) to help it deliver efficiency savings.

The company was engaged earlier this year to help the authority meet a £50m savings target, set as part of the previous budget.

Lezley Picton said consultants were helping to transform the authority

Liberal Democrat group leader Roger Evans said members were being frozen out of the process – and has called for greater transparency in how the firm is being used.

“We have been asking how, what, where has this money been saved. Why didn’t Shropshire Council look at this before? Why did they need consultants on £1m a year to find these savings?” he said.

“Councillors have never been asked their views, and have never been shown examples of what that saving is," Mr Evans added.

He suggested councillors and staff could be asked to identify savings themselves.

'Transformation'

Ms Picton said the spending on consultants had already led to £37m of savings being identified across 16 projects.

“PwC were appointed to help provide the capacity and capability to help deliver transformation savings identified within the medium-term financial strategy,” she said.

She added: "We are committed to ensuring that our efforts and resources are being used in the most effective manner to support Shropshire residents."