Cambridgeshire County Council facing 30% cuts over £28m shortfall

Cambridgeshire County Council facing "difficult choices" over funding gap of £28m for next financial year

Cutting wages and services were among measures discussed by a cash-strapped council facing a £28m budget gap.

Cambridgeshire County Council, which predicted a £17m gap in February, said inflation and uncertainty about energy costs had pushed that figure up.

Council leader, Liberal Democrat Lucy Nethsingha, said the council might not be able to do all the things it wanted.

A report for the authority said it would be unsustainable to use reserves to plug the gap.

At a strategy and resources committee meeting on Thursday, councillors were told the authority faced a cumulative budget gap over the next five years of £108m.

As well as rising inflation, increased staffing costs and uncertain demand for services were some of the issues outlined by the report.

It added that central government had not given any indication of further funding to councils to meet pressures.

The council would therefore need to close the budget gap "almost entirely" through decisions within its control, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Ms Nethsingha said the summer had also added a "very considerable additional level of concern" around how the authority worked to deal with the effects of climate change, in particular highlighting the impact of the drought on the roads in the Fenland area.

She said: "While I am exceptionally aware of the poor situation of some of our roads, the vast majority of our budget goes care for the vulnerable over which we have very little control and needs to be absolutely at the top of our priority list."

Steve Count, leader of the Conservative opposition, highlighted the part of the report that said the authority may have to "take steps to reduce growing demand for services", and may have to make "dis-investments or reductions to lower priority services".

He said this meant there would be "cuts to services for vulnerable people".

Mr Count said decisions made by the joint administration had also widened the budget gap, highlighting the decision to pay staff the real living wage and changes to the county council's development company, This Land.

But Labour's Elisa Meschini, deputy leader of the council, said the "last thing" that should be done in a cost of living crisis was to cut people's wages.

She added that the current plans by the government not to conduct a spending review this year for how much funding councils should get would have a "massive impact", amounting to 30% real cuts.