Norfolk County Council leader writes to PM over £60m budget gap

Andrew Proctor said local government funding was "uncertain"

The leader of a council facing "very significant challenges" over its £60m budget gap has written to Prime Minister Liz Truss with his concerns.

The Conservative-run Norfolk County Council has found £32.5m in savings and has warned of "enormous uncertainty".

Andrew Proctor said the council had dealt with funding shortages in the past "but not to this scale".

In his letter he said potentially increasing council tax during a time of low tax "does not sit with me".

He told the BBC: "I think the issue now is how uncertain local government funding is.

"If we don't get the increased funding, or if we we don't get some of what we had before, that puts us in a significantly difficult position."

Currently the council has not been given a figure for central government funding for next year. Its total budget for next year is forecast to be £486m.

The council said the "very severe headwinds" of inflation and the cost of living would inevitably increase the budget gap.

Members of the county council cabinet met on Thursday

A report to cabinet, which met on Thursday, said there was a "significant risk that the council will be obliged to consider reductions in service levels".

Councillors agreed to recommend the latest proposals for saving £19.5m, which includes £11.7m from adult social services.

In July, £13m in savings were announced.

Andrew Jamieson, Conservative cabinet member for finance, said: "Sixty million is a great deal to find and it's certainly larger than we've ever seen before.

"It [the budget] was set prior to the time where we've seen such a large increase in inflation and before we agreed a £7.6m increase to the wage bill.

"There is a lot more money that needs to be found.

"I am confident that we will be able to balance the budget next year, but it will be a much harder task than usual and we cannot ease up on our intensive work to find robust savings.

"Things could get a lot worse in the sense that we will need to look very, very hard at what our statutory obligations are.

"At the moment we deliver services well above what our statutory obligations are, and we will continue to that, but we will need central government funding to do that."

The proposals will go out to public consultation before being discussed by cabinet again at the end of the year.