Cabinet agrees council tax freeze - but £54.5m savings need to be made (From Times Series)

Barnet Council's cabinet agrees council tax freeze - but £54.5million savings need to be made

5:25pm Tuesday 26th February 2013 in News By Natalie O'Neill

Barnet Borough Council’s cabinet has agreed to freeze council tax for the next two years, while efficiency savings, redundancies and cuts help plug a gap in the budget.

Council tax will be frozen until 2015 if the papers are approved at a full council meeting on Tuesday March 5.

Band D properties would continue to pay £1,118.20 a year for the council’s portion of the bill.

Meanwhile, the latest budget report discussed at last night's cabinet meeting shows the authority still needs to make savings totalling £54.5million over the next three years.

The aim is to make 89 per cent of the saving through efficiencies, eight per cent from service reductions and three per cent from increases in income. 

The plans include making savings of £21,312,000 from adult social services and £16,587,000 from children’s services over the next three years.

The budget will also have an impact on council staff – the total number of people at risk of redundancy is estimated 274.

Cabinet member for resources and performance Councillor Daniel Thomas said: “We’ll still be investing in schools, continuing to work in early intervention to tackle troubled families. And, protecting services for the vulnerable.

“Our consultation has been thorough. Residents have come back and agreed on our approach – they want more savings to come from efficiencies and less from service cuts.

“This is a solid financial report that puts us on a good footing financially as a council and I recommend it to cabinet.”

The budget has been based on the council successfully fighting a legal challenge over its outsourcing programme, One Barnet.