Leeds Council Face More Budget Cuts

Leeds is facing MORE cuts to youth services, sports centres, and residential homes. It's going to mean another 500 council jobs being axed as well - making it 2 and a half thousand in total. Council Leader Keith Wakefield has warned of "grim" decisions needing to be taken as budget proposals to tackle a further £46.7million reduction in government funding and £76.1m savings have been announced.

The council has already seen its levels of core funding from government reduced by £129m over the last four years, and an estimated further reduction of £74m over the next two financial years will mean by 2017 grant funding for Leeds will have been cut by over 45 per cent overall in less than seven years.

Since 2010, Leeds City Council has made significant changes including:

•   Staff numbers reduced by more than 2000 ftes by the end of 2014/15, spending almost £50m less on employees

•   Saving approximately £30m through procurement and demand management

•   Increased income of £21m

•   Reduced buildings maintenance by £1m

•   Closures including seven residential homes, 12 day centres, 14 libraries, two leisure centres, two community centres a one-stop centre and three hostels

•   Reduced grant to third sector including 15 per cent to major arts organisations

•   Increased income from council tax growth by £17.8m

•   Earned £13.6m this year from the New Homes Bonus

Leader of Leeds City Council Councillor Keith Wakefield said, "I warned in October the budget for next year was going to be the toughest yet and the proposals being put forward are as brutal as I feared. Local authorities simply have nowhere else to go now but make the grim choices they have been avoiding for the last four years.

"Taking into account loss of grant funding and other factors, we have had to save £250million in Leeds alone since 2010, and as a region the loss of grant equates to £470million in that time – colossal amounts of money, and yet we continue to be asked to make more and more savings.

"We have tried as hard as possible to limit the impact on frontline services but it’s unavoidable that whatever we do now is going to be very painful so it is vitally important that people give us their views so we can find out their priorities."

The budget proposal report will be available from this afternoon (Tue 9 Dec) at . Public consultation on the budget proposals will begin on December 17 through www.leeds.gov.uk/budget