THE focus will be on 5pm this Thursday (December 15) as the borough council waits to see what its central government grant will be for the next financial year.
Currently the authority, which has already made nearly £7 million in cuts following last year’s disastrous settlement, is facing a £1 million shortfall in its budget.
And the fear is that, with Theresa May’s Conservative government suddenly putting its focus on social care, vital new homes bonus cash could be switched from the borough council and given to Worcestershire county council instead to pay for it.
Director of finance Jayne Pickering told Tuesday evening’s executive committee meeting that at the moment 80 per cent of the new homes bonus – money paid by developers into the authority’s coffers – goes to the borough council and 20 per cent to the county council.
However Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond could flip that equation on Thursday, sending 80 per cent to Worcestershire and cutting Redditch’s share to just 20 per cent, and in the process wrecking the borough’s finances.
She added that already any underspend in the authority’s budget was going to cut the deficit and any opportunity to take a more commercial approach to bring money in was being seized.
Furthermore the council’s own staff had come up with 156 money saving ideas to help bridge the budget gap.
Council leader Councillor Bill Hartnett (Lab, Church Hill) said: “A lot depends on December 15. I’ve heard various rumours from various organisations but hopefully (the Chancellor) will continue with the projection of a few months ago and will not flip the funding because for this council and all the districts in Worcestershire and all the aurhorities in the country this would be devastating.”
Portfolio holder for corporate management, Coun John Fisher (Lab, M’boro) added: “There was no mention of social care last year and now all of a sudden the government is talking about council tax rises.
“The government needs to deal with inequality in local government finance – the less well off authorities find it harder to raise money for services yet they are the ones for the greater need for those service.”
