The Government Revenue Support Grant to the Oxford City Council is expected to fall from its current value of £4.43 million to nothing by
2019.
Deputy Leader of the Oxford City Council, Executive Board Member for Finance and Labour councillor, Ed Turner, informed Cherwell, “We
estimate that over the period of the coalition government we’ll have lost around 47 per cent of our government grant, and it is clear from
the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement that there is even worse to come. This is clearly dreadful news for all who are concerned about public services.”
Turner explained, “There is an aim to reduce the national deficit (an aim which the coalition has been failing to meet at anything like the pace it anticipated by 2018/19), and the vital services provided by councils do not appear to
be much of a priority.”
The Head of Finance at Oxford City Council, Nigel Kennedy, added, “The bulk of this target will be achieved through cuts in local government spending.” The Local Government Association (LGA) has estimated that the spending
cuts in local government funding may be as high as 40 per cent. For this next year, the Government Revenue Support Grant is expected to account for 19.2
per cent of the Oxford City Council’s net budget requirement, compared to 26.4 per cent in the previous year.
Different sources of funding will therefore constitute a greater proportion of the council budget in the coming years. As Turner told Cherwell, “Council tax becomes a bigger proportion of our overall budget.”
He added, “However, we are not allowed to raise this by more than two per cent (without a referendum, the legal requirement which is constructed in such a way that it isn’t really practical).
“So we need to work even harder to generate other sources of income, including trading with public and private sector bodies, and work more efficiently, doing things like reducing the amount of office space we occupy, and looking at the way in which we work. We are not considering outsourcing large areas of council activity, as some councils are doing.
“In recent years, we have had to take many tough decisions – such as charging for services like garden waste collection which used to be
free – and there is no doubt that there will be some more.
“I would expect cuts to the Council to have a very bad impact. Next year we will see the implementation of cuts to homeless hostels in central Oxford, and I am gravely concerned about those receiving social care.”
