Lewisham Council media release: Thursday 27 November 2014
Budget challenge is tough residents tell Council
Crime reduction and safety, refuse and street cleaning and children and family services are the council services most valued by Lewisham residents. That’s just one of the findings of the Lewisham Big Budget Challenge.
Lewisham Council needs to find savings worth £85million over the next three years in the face of significantly reduced government funding. Before making decisions it wanted to give local people the chance to find out how the Council currently spends its money, what services it provides and to choose their own way to balance the budget using an online budget simulator.
Other feedback included:
· spending could be reduced by reducing costs across the Council, particularly on senior management and external consultants, by sharing services and better procurement
· the Council could increase its income by using assets more commercially and increasing planning charges
· the most people option on council tax was to continue the freeze.
Councillor Joe Dromey, Cabinet Member for Policy, Performance and Communications, said: “This has been Lewisham’s biggest community conversation of its kind and I want to thank everyone who took part. It is clear that people found trying to balance the Council’s books a very difficult exercise and impossible to achieve without making some really tough choices. Many people are still shocked to discover the position we have been put in by the savage reductions in our Government funding.
“The results will be really useful to councillors as we make those tough choices on our budget in the coming months and years.”
The Council engaged 4,000 people in Lewisham’s Big Budget Challenge by using:
· an online budget simulator
· discussions at local assemblies
· a quick survey through assemblies and online.
A report on the exercise was reported to Lewisham Council at its meeting on Wednesday 26 November and is available on the Council’s website by going to http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/bigbudgetchallenge.
Ends.