More government funding needed to help Peterborough City Council balance the books

Cllr David Seaton, the council’s Cabinet member for finance said the authority’s budget had been in a good position before the impact of the pandemic.

Cllr Shaz Nawaz, Leader of the Labour Group of Peterborough City Council had asked members of the Full Council at their online meeting (October 21) what alternatives are being looked at to guarantee the delivery of a sustainable budget over the next few years. He said: “Austerity measures from central government have caused a massive strain on our budgets.

“Apart from the current negotiations with central government, what other alternatives are we pursuing to deliver sustainable budgets, over the next three to five years?”

Cllr David Seaton replied: “We really need to look at the situation pre- and post-Covid-19.

“Pre-Covid-19 we had a budget deficit of £14m for 2020/21 through 2021/22 onwards and we’d actually identified nearly £12m of ongoing savings to close that gap with a year to address the remaining £2m.

“I was confident at the start of 2020 that over the twelve months of this year we would move to a sustainable budget.

“Covid-19 has clearly changed that situation.

“The BBC survey in June suggested that 158 out of the 173 councils who responded had a problem this year, and other data supports that.

“Thankfully, Peterborough City Council still has a balanced position – so far we’ve received something like £28m of additional government funding and I expect more to come.

“In addition, the government has announced only on 12 October another £1bn of funding to be made available, and I hope that we shall see our fair share of that.

“However, like nearly all councils, there is no getting away from the fact that we face considerable financial challenges in the next year which is hindered further by it being impossible to predict the course of this pandemic, the availability of potential vaccines, the timing of economic recovery, incomes lost and the further expenditure needed to support the work within our communities.

“Hence, we can only use our best endeavours to estimate the gap between achieving a sustainable budget over the coming years.

“Phase one of our Medium-Term Financial Plan, which we only launched on 16 October, gives us that ‘best estimate’ with the gap due to the COVID-19 emergency.

“This is why we have approached the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government with a range of short and medium-term, one-off and continuing options.

“They’ve said that even with the considerable financial support already provided, there will be local authorities with individual circumstances which is why they’re encouraging councils to approach them to discuss their future financial position.

“So, I’m grateful they’ll continue to work closely with us as this council continues to support the community of Peterborough throughout the pandemic.”

Cllr Shaz Nawaz responded by saying: “While I thank Cllr Seaton for his answer, I’m sure that even he will agree that we were in quite a bit of financial trouble before Covid-19?

“Being a former banker, he will, I am sure, agree with me that it’s wiser to learn from the lessons of the past – so, on reflection, looking back, what does he feel the council could’ve done better so that perhaps today we’d have been in a better financial position?”

Cllr Seaton replied: “Actually I disagree – I think with a deficit of £14m and £12m of identified savings and a whole year to make-up the remainder of that deficit we were in a good position to have achieved a sustainable situation.

“Yes, I was a banker; you’re an accountant and an expert in tax avoidance – we’re both ‘numbers people’, and so maybe I should’ve listened to you a bit more.

“But, given that the problem we’re currently faced with is due to the pandemic, it serves no purpose to look back at the recent few years and say what things we should’ve done differently

“We were in a good position at the start of this year. The pandemic has changed everything and it has changed it for every single council in this country.”