“If we had the Island Deal, we would not have to make any of these cuts.” – That is the Isle of Wight Council’s standpoint as it looks ahead to one of the hardest budgets it has ever had to produce.
The authority says government austerity has cut £93 million from its pocket in the last 12 years.
In the recently announced 2023/24 budget, the authority is looking for £3.9 million in savings or income generation.
Axing a stroke support service, voluntary redundancies and increased parking charges are among the options on the table.
In the 2022/23 financial year, the authority faced unplanned cost pressures of around £20 million due to factors such as inflation and energy costs.
Financial director, Chris Ward, speaking at last night’s (Tuesday) corporate scrutiny committee, said it was 10 times more than the council thought it would have to find in savings that year. However, Mr Ward said, without government support, the council would not have been able to find the required savings and would have exhausted the council’s financial resilience.
The committee questioned how much additional income would be needed to stop any service cuts or the use of council reserves, with figures touted between £8 million and £9.5 million.
Councillor Richard Quigley said the authority was extremely short of its cash lifeblood, whilst Councillor Julie Jones-Evans highlighted a government report which said the physical separation between the Island and the mainland means it costs the council between £10 million and £63 million a year to provide services.
The government’s fair funding review which intends to look at the unique cost pressures associated with providing council services on the Island — known as the ‘Island Deal’ — has been further delayed by 2 years.
At the moment, the council benefits from £10 million of retained business rates but in the future this will be done by a different formula and it was not known whether the Island would be a winner or a loser in that process.
Mr Ward said this was a large uncertainty so the council needed to remain prudent as they went forward.
If you went into a supermarket and they announced massive cuts to their prices (the amount of money they charged you for things), you’d expect everything to become cheaper – why is it then that when public sector bodies announce ‘cuts’ to budgets, what they really mean is cuts to services they are delivering, whilst the budgets themselves(and the money you are expected to cough up for them) goes up – what they really mean to say is that they will once again be delivering less service for much more cost – the ‘cuts’ are simply a re-diversion of money from services you think you pay for into areas (climate change, diversity, net zero etc) that offer no tangible benefit to you no matter what ludicrous claims they make about saving the planet,
Because they are clearly talking about cuts to services to save money.
A bit like the way Sainsburys are getting rid of their in-store pharmacy.
Stop giving handouts to dole scroungers, druggies, get rid of the “dead wood” at county hall, and we all know there is a lot of that, and above all take a pay cut and stop handing out brown envelopes. You can only push people so far before they simply “cannot” afford to pay council tax, when it comes to a choice or eating, keeping warm and keeping the council happy, then bye bye council. If a few people refused to pay and it became widespread over here, once the national press got hold of it, then maybe our council would get investigated, until then, I’m afraid this lot will rip you off for all they can.
45% of Universal Credit recipients are already IN work & earning Poverty Pay wage levels that don’t meet the unregulated rent demands & the unrestricted charges being levied by Utilities providers using the US – UK proxy war as justification for their racketeering & extortion.
Failure to pay Council Tax > fines & increased penalty payments > risk of bailiffs & prison, end of!
Where is the governmental lobbying & input on behalf of islanders by elected Council members for funding that recognises the additional issues faced by island dwellers?
What are you waffling about???? What if people really can’t pay and they can prove it, oh yes I guess you would kick them out on the streets. I see you don’t mention all the drug problems or so called mental health problems either, do you work on the council by any chance.
In the recently announced 2023/24 budget, the authority is looking for £3.9 million in savings or income generation.
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cut the 1 million pounds a year spent on SEND kids taxis to school – make the parents pay- their kids, not ourscut the 1 million pounds a year spent on care for three individuals – as evidenced by Karl Love – they don’t need that muchin november the council paid over £300,000 to Go South for concessionary over 60’s bus travel, this amount in december was over £400,000 and over £440,000 in october. At this rate, the council are paying Go South (southern vectis) over £5 million a year – how about that gets cut.These three items from council expenditure can save £7 million a year easily
They are required to fund this transport by law. They have no choice in the matter.
Ditto senior bus passes.
they do have a choice – nothing is set in stone
I suggest you use your internet search engine of choice to search for council statutory duties which will take you to many resources by the government and local councils showing that there are, in fact, quite a few things set in stone as you put it.
it is not set in stone – do you even understand – things can and do change if needed.
it is not law that I must pay for some other deadbeat to have free travel – if the money starts to run out, this largesse of free travel that parents and pensioners should be paying for stops.
ha…well said wighter, I bet you aren’t skint either – those of us that do understand how things really work are making money hand over fist, day in day out, no matter what drivel is stated on the gullible mainstream media news networks that are simply used to ensure the general populous have something to focus on, rather than those of us coining it in.
Don’t forget the £60k per year that the council has to pay the ferry companies for the subsidised travel to hospital appointments on the mainland. Everyone thinks the ferry companies are being nice by giving you a discount for appointments, but in reality you still pay full price through your council tax, so Red Funnel & wightlink are not actually giving any discount!
Be prudent????
Well take the advice, don’t waste money on the council offices, shanklin lift etc etc.
All you lot ever do is blame everyone else, ….
Next lot won’t be any better so probably not worth getting out of bed to vote ….
Same old story …..
In a time of economic hardship why is the council hitting on the residents yet again when as the report quotes the council does not wish to spend their reserves, hello, not your reserves,it belongs to the residents who pay their council tax. it is not the councillors personal piggy bank. Before you consider putting anything up or cutting services or spending millions on vanity projcts that on previous experience have not been costed use the reserves and give is a break.
And what happens when the reserves are gone?
More to the point, what happens when the reserves are gone and a major and unexpected expense occurs?
Bottom line is the “time of economic hardship” is with us for the next 5 to 10 years due to a combination of Covid, Brexit and Tory mismanagement (i.e “austerity”) at national level. Blowing the reserves would give them 2 years at best. Then we would need deeper and sharper cuts to those proposed.
smiffy – demonstrating a lack of understanding of financial systems and the coordinated structures of the central banking system.
the mainstream media narrative of blaming brexit/covid and the tories – is clearly being lapped up and believed by the gullible public who don’t have the interest to understand the facts.
do some research smiffy before posting eh.
Here we see the typical response of the far-right thicky.
Criticising people for not understanding the facts when they are demonstrating zero understanding of them themselves.
Telling people to “do some research” when it is abundantly clear they have done none themselves.
again smiffy – you make assumptions about a persons views without even knowing them
perhaps you should research the monetary system we all live under and then perhaps you will have an inkling of a clue about how wrong you are
reality is right about what they say
Why is it nutjobs always use names like “truth” and “reality” when posting online?
I suppose it’s to cover up their lack of real knowledge and low IQ.
You tell em Smiffy, sharing it out has always worked!
Will you & I still be able to get free prescriptions, blue badges, free bus passes, heating allowances & index linked pensions Smiffy or are these right wing lot gonna means test us? How are you gonna afford your green fees at the golf club if they do? Tough times ahead my old mate, tough times indeed
It is obvious that nobody in Westminster really cares about the Island and have not done for a long time. Although IOW is supposedly part of the UK it is for the majority of the time a hindrance for those in power. Why are postal services in such a shambles? Why can’t you get certain goods delivered to the Island either by post or courier services? I don’t even need to mention the state of health or care services, or the transport situation. Lots of these could be solved by careful legislation and would at least give some basic rights to Islanders in their daily lives. Promising money in the future is as sure as winning the lottery.
you have rights graham- it is called freedom of movement – in other words – move to the mainland if you don’t like the way things are here
And if Graham finds things on the mainland as bad, if differently so? Perhaps you’d like him to move overseas? Perhaps you’d like everybody with a different opinion from yours to move out of your way?
It is tempting…
In truth then, a gigantic unadulterated massive over spending balls up by the useless not fit for purpose council, that all us mugs are going to cop the bill for? A bill that we cannot afford because we are already struggling thanks to a corrupt useless government, again not fit for purpose who don’t give a sh*t about us.
As long as they don’t cut the No.7 bus so I can sign on fortnightly, I’ll be happy
Why don’t the top council bosses cut there wages
They are just deflecting, muddying the waters by a group of people who have lost sight of the fact that they represent us not the other way around.