Peterborough City Council delays announcement of new budget proposals to tackle multi-million pound deficit

New proposals to tackle a multi-million pound deficit at Peterborough City Council have been pushed back a month.
Coun David Seaton and Peterborough City Council  Leader Coun. John  Holdich with the 2018/9 budget briefing EMN-171011-165633009Coun David Seaton and Peterborough City Council  Leader Coun. John  Holdich with the 2018/9 budget briefing EMN-171011-165633009
Coun David Seaton and Peterborough City Council Leader Coun. John Holdich with the 2018/9 budget briefing EMN-171011-165633009

The council was due to announce its latest set of 2018/19 budget proposals at the end of last week (Friday, January 5), but the announcement will now not take place until February.

A council spokeswoman said the delay was because the authority had only received its final financial settlement from the Government just before Christmas, so it wanted some time to consider the implications,

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There was no indication whether the council will be better or worse off under the new financial settlement, but it was previously budgeting to make £19 million of savings for 2018/19.

Last November, the council released its first set of budget proposals which would tackle more than £3 million of that deficit. That included a rise in council tax of five per cent, of which three per cent is ringfenced for adult social care.

The second set of proposals, which will now be released in February, will tackle the rest of the deficit so the authority can have a balanced budget.

Council leader Cllr John Holdich has previously warned that key services will be affected if the Government does not hand over more money.

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The council has launched a campaign for fairer funding after seeing its main government grant reduced by 80 per cent while costs have risen steeply due to an increase in homelessness and residents needing social care.

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