Mancunians were warned today: There’s a lot more cuts pain on the way.
Town hall bosses are preparing to save a further £80m – on top of the £170m they’ve already slashed from the budget.
The first swathe of cutbacks led to the loss of around 2,000 jobs and a string of services hit.
Now it has emerged that town hall chiefs will have to shave another £25m from their budget in 2013/14 - rising to between £55m and £80m in 2014/15. And they’ve been unable to rule out more workers losing their jobs.
Residents have also been warned they could face a 3.5 per cent increase in council tax for 2013/14 to help close the funding gap. The tax was frozen this year thanks to a special government grant.
The news comes with the council entering the second year of a cuts programme that is seeing it reduce spending by £170m.
The purge on spending has followed the coalition government cutting its grants by 21 per cent – far higher than the national average.
Ministers have revealed that funding to local authorities will fall by 0.8 per cent in 2013/14 –year three of its cuts programme – and 5.4 per cent in 2014/15. Individual town halls do not yet know their precise share of the pain. But Manchester fears it could once again be hit harder than more affluent southern councils.
Changes to the way town halls receive their funding, and an overhaul of the benefits system, will also have an impact on the level of cash the city receives.
Council leader Sir Richard Leese said his team was being forced to take a ‘best-guess approach’ to budgeting. He urged the government to take its foot of the cuts pedal.
Sir Richard said: "Clearly, for this next year we’ve a certainty about where we're going and we’re in a robust position, because I think we’ve managed it well. What we have to do in terms of what happens in years three and four is be prudent but not over-optimistic about what the position will be.
"We are aiming to make sure we don’t end up in a bigger mess than the one the government has put us in."
The town hall hopes significant further savings will come from efforts to reduce dependency on local authority services. That includes setting aside a planned £8.1m to invest in ‘early intervention work’ with the city’s most troubled families, ultimately reducing the bill to the taxpayer.
Merging services with local authority neighbours – including introducing a new joint legal services department with Salford – will also save cash.
Council chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein said: "We’ve made what we think is a prudent and sensible assessment of the fiscal environment we could all be operating in over the next couple of years. We won’t know what that environment means until later this year but we must plan accordingly."
Chancellor George Osborne warned councils they would be expected to make difficult choices. He said: "I understand it’s difficult for anyone at a time when the country is running out of money and the debts have built up.
"My message is to try everything you can to ensure you’re giving the best value for money in the services you deliver.
"There are councils that have done a really good job of managing the cuts in a way that doesn’t impact on frontline services.
"Like every family in Britain at the moment, there are difficult choices about priorities but I think a well-run council can make those choices."
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Good good. Plenty of waste to shave off yet. Stopping pandering to certain sections of the community wil save a fortune.
Here's an idea:
Why not just trim everything down to the basics that councils are supposed to be doing (empty the bins, clean the streets, repairs, looking after people who need it, etc.) and stop getting tied up in expensive 'initiatives' like paving over roads (Deansgate) and introducing the 20mph speed limit ?
In other words, stop coming up with fancy 'right-on' schemes that only serve to waste council tax payers' money !
A 'tiered' pay cut for every council employee earning more than £40,000 per year and a cap of £70,000 per year wouldn't go amiss, either.
job losses/cuts in services and we're expected to sit and gawp at these over paid luvvies patting each other on the back at award shows .
Beer and circuses!
Not a single person, not a single newspaper, not a single TV show, not a single politician since this crisis began, has come to the people of this country and said - this is exactly how I personally am suffering along with you.
Not Leese, not Bernstein, not Cameran, not Balls, not a single one of those who make the most and do the least. Please, somebody, put this simple question to Leese. Ask him, directly, how this has affected him. Has he had to worry about paying the phone bill? Has he had to worry about the gas bill? Has he had to wonder how he will avoid court proceedings because he cannot feed his family and pay his council tax?
Nobody will ask him these questions, if they did he wouldn't answer them. Lets hope this country follows the Greeks and actually does something for a change, instead of poncy one day strikes by useless, toothless unions.
Well you need to scrap this idea of a Mayor of Manchester and have two Councillors per ward instead of three look at the money spent on parades and the Christmas lights will have to go. Look nearer to home instead of picking on the public, up the rent at City ground as well.
Is that the same Sir Howard Bernstein, holding a press conference about FA matters last week?
Why does Manchester council need him working part-time alongside another (presumably) very well paid Knight of the realm, Sir Richard Leese?
No pay cuts yet for the council fat cats?
And they'll have to make more cuts soon too.
For the past two weeks we have witness ...My wife and self, the destruction to the Sunday shopping trade that the weekend parking charges are having, yesterday King Street was virtually deserted.
Well done Leese & Bernstein, your doing a fantastic job of closing Manchester shops down ...we'll be going to the Trafford centre infuture.
The majority of the 2000 job losses were those who chose to either take severance pay or retire early and have access to their pensions.
Can MCC expalin why they have restructured Neighbourhood Services and actually increased the grades and salaries for those at the top while reducing the salaries and grades of those lower down ? If further cuts are to be made, it needs to start at the swelled Senior Management level, rather than those actually proving the front line services lower down.
Britain’s Con-Dem regime are an “illegitimate, unelected government cobbled together by the banks.” A Cabinet of 28 millionaires with laughable claims that we are somehow : " All in this together "
If the Bank of England can find £50 billion overnight to shore up the bond market speculators through quantitative easing, why should workers face an extra £40 billion in public spending cuts this coming financial year ?
And yet they still want to add a further layer of bureaucracy and cost with an elected mayor.
Is there no limit to the council gravy train?
i wonder if sir reichard has taken a pay cut yet to do his bit to help?
as with most people who work in the real world.
Most will disagree, but i would take a little increase in my council tax, to protect against cuts in some areas.
Just wait til the Greek "Refugees" start to turn up. Why do we pay MPs £60K a year and yet we have Trade Union Leaders on £100k.
Yes, I am totally in agreement with Gorton. Same thoughts apply to Salford which is why tomorrow on Valentine's Day I will be announcing my position on the future elected mayor priorities. I detest paying £135 a month council tax, for what? to prop up stupid expensive initiatives at at time when people cannot afford to suffer traditional waste by local councils.
Both have there faults. The government can waste money sending millions of £ in 'AID' to other countries and allowing more people to claim asylum/immigrate to this country and hand benefits and allowances to them (were not the only country in Europe people!) PLUS hand benefits to people who just waist them and sit on there backsides all day. MAKE THEM WORK FOR IT! MCC, as has already been mentioned, wastes money on very irrelevant project and should get back to basics! Start cuts from the top down for a change
The problem is our council leaders were very good at spending our money, then telling us we have to pay more. Their skills seem to be a void in managing the reverse but that is exactly what we need, lower council tax. If the council leaders do not understand why it is because they fail to see just how many other costs in running a home are a problem for many. Stop spending on daft ideas and get back to the supply of essential services.
I won't feel any "pain". We pay £1200 a year council tax for a one bed apartment and the only service the council gives us is to collect the communal bins and (rarely) mending the odd pot hole in the road. Can't see how they can save any money on that.
Now the UK is paying £50million a day to the EU, that's £100million every two days or £18bn a year, enough for two olympics per year at £9bn each.Ths is more an extra government than a common market. Some money does come back, about 40%, but to landowners and not the treasury.
It is clear that MCC and SCC do not support the introduction of Elected Mayors - it is a complete waste of money - why bring in an elected mayor of Salford and one then for Manchester (if people are daft enough to vote them in) when they will be paid double the current leader's salary and will not have the same powers as the likes of Boris Johnson....He is the MAYOR of GREATER LONDON - the only way this would work is if we had a MAYOR FOR GREATER MANCHESTER - this agenda is a government led agenda with local councils not wanting this bureaucratic waste of space!
In November MCC closed down their in-house employment agency and offered all 50 or so temporary workers full-time employment contracts. You won’t find any mention of this in Council papers as it has been conveniently hidden from the taxpayer. However, as the temps were made to sign a compromise agreement, they lost all previous years service with the Council. Quite a canny move, as they can be amongst the first staff to be let go and they won’t qualify for any redundancy pay.
Interesting is it not. Manchester is swathed in business surrounding the town hall to the industrial parks. Yet the council is scrambling to save cash and inflict cuts. I would question MCC book keeping.
It is about time all of us stood our ground and refuse to pay council tax,cuts cuts and more cuts why do we pay council tax. What do we get for our money. There are many cuts they should make start with the fats cats at the town hall. I would like to see them live on what I get and that is nothing.I cannot get a job.I have ostroartrintis in both knees cannot claim anything.I have been told by ATOS I am fit for work.I cannot walk far have to use my Mobility scooter. My husband has to keep me. My Dad would be going mad if he knew what was going on in this Country.
I can thing of two cuts that might proce popular Lease and Carney
Lets remember folks - MCC have done so much for Manchester, including its current leadership team. Staff at MCC work hard to provide services to residents. It's a shame that the government do not recognise that we have some of the most deprived communities in the country and we need to support them effectively. Just look at the change in Manchester since the bomb and regeneration over the past 10-15 years then tell me that MCC haven't got things right. Yes mistakes have been made, but doesn't everyone make mistakes. Take the fat cat bankers for example. Remember it is them that started this whole fiasco!