'Financial survival is the aim', Shropshire Council to tell new Labour government

The authority will ask for a return to multi-year financial settlements to help it plan for the future when it responds to a request made earlier this year by then Minister for Local Government, Simon Hoare MP.

The minister wrote to all council chief executives requesting councils produce so-called productivity plans outlining their plans for the future - including how councils nationwide were planning to reduce their 'wasteful' spending - and asked if there was more that central government could do to make councils more efficient.

In response the authority will ask the incoming national government to revise the national funding system for local government with "greater alignment to local demand", along with a return to multi-year funding settlements for local councils.

For the past six years, local authorities have only been told how much funding they would receive from central government for the following financial year, which councils have said makes it difficult to plan medium term budgets.

However, the Labour government outlined its ambition to return to multi-year settlements as a manifesto commitment, although no time-scales have yet been published.

The council says plans to shrink the organisation, reduce the amount of money it spends with external agencies and increase the number of people using digital means to get in touch with them are examples of the way it’s transforming services to make savings.

"Our short-term priority is simple: financial survival. We have the greatest financial challenge we have ever faced as a council in the current financial year, delivering £62.5m recurrent savings leaving a net budget of £262m," said the report by council chief executive Andy Begley.

"It is important to note that government's requirement for the Productivity Plan does not reflect the depth and scale of the programmes and planning underway within the council to deliver the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and key council policies and strategies.

"In addition, the council is working with wider partners such as the Marches Forward Partnership to broker growth and devolution deals with government."

The authority has until the end of this week to report back - after which responses from councils around the country will be picked apart by a government committee.

The return will be discussed by Shropshire Council’s scrutiny committee this week.