Liverpool City Council faces eye-watering £34m budget cut - mayor

A 10-week consultation on the budget plans will launch in November

Liverpool will need to "save an eye-watering amount of money" to balance its budget, the city's mayor has said.

Joanne Anderson said Liverpool City Council was committed to protecting "the most vulnerable and those struggling to make ends meet" but needed to save £34m in the coming year.

Measures including an annual charge for green bins and a review of library subsidies are being considered.

A council spokesman said there would be "no easy decisions".

Ms Anderson said the council would "examine every decision through our triple-lock prism of its impact on people, the planet and improving equality", but savings were needed as the authority's funding had reduced by about 65% since 2010.

Options being considered include:

• A £40 annual charge for green bin collections

• Reviews of school transport demand, controlled parking zones and services, individual high cost care packages and subsidies for externally-run libraries

• A charge to private landlords and social housing providers for pest control

• Increasing revenue from filming, cruise liners and events

• A management restructure

The council has already confirmed that there are no proposals to withdraw services from children's centres, leisure centres and council-run libraries.

There are also no proposals to remove funding from local emergency support grants, known locally as the Liverpool Citizen's Support Scheme.

'Calamitous financial recklessness'

The budget options report, which will outline the proposals, will be presented to the council's cabinet on 5 November before a 10-week consultation is launched the following day.

A final budget report will be drawn up and considered by the cabinet in February 2022 before a special budget meeting is held the following month.

"We have to save an eye-watering amount of money in order to legally balance our budget," Ms Anderson said

"We are committed to doing what we can to protect the most vulnerable and those struggling to make ends meet, and they are among our highest priorities.

"We won't shirk away from finding sustainable solutions to long-term problems and the double whammy of austerity and Covid-19."

Mayor Anderson said protecting the most vulnerable is "among our highest priorities"

The leader of the city's Liberal Democrat opposition said the "list of calamitous financial recklessness is almost never-ending".

"We know that the Lime Street contract has been totally messed up and is already overspent by £13m, which will incur a whopping £5m in interest charges," Richard Kemp said.

"This will cost taxpayers £706,000 a year, which will be cut from vital front-line services. Even this dreadful figure will rise."

He said he had written to the mayor to outline a five-point plan, which included ensuring that all money that was due was billed and collected efficiently and proposals for a reduction in the core costs of running the council.

Analysis

By Claire Hamilton, BBC political reporter for Merseyside

For almost a decade, Liverpool's leaders have warned about the stark choices facing the council as it sets its annual budget.

Council tax will rise again this year for the ninth year in a row, but unlike in some more prosperous cities, the majority of Liverpool's houses are in Band A, meaning the revenue the tax generates doesn't match what's needed.

The council's seen funding from central government drop, the financial impact of the pandemic response, failed developments and a damning government inspector's report into property deals in the city, which has damaged the city's reputation.

So is this a poisoned chalice for the new mayor? Public sympathy might be waning, as people are expected to pay more when their own household bills are stretched.

Pre-pandemic, councils were trying to generate income through entrepreneurial investing.

Liverpool has huge potential and a globally recognised brand - but how much it can be further monetised is a huge challenge.

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