Nottingham councillors taking legal advice as they refuse to back 'savage' cuts

Nottingham councillors are taking legal advice amid uncertainty about whether they will be able to pass “savage” budget cuts in the city this year. Although it is a legal requirement for councils to set a balanced budget, the savings proposed for Nottingham mean councillors are now asking lawyers and senior Labour Party officials whether they would be personally liable if they vote against them.

The scale of the cuts planned has led to one senior councillor suggesting an “emergency fund” to keep some of Nottingham’s most vital services going. The current version of the budget includes plans ranging from the axing of more than 500 jobs to the closure of care homes and the end of Nottingham’s pest control service. Budgets are set every year and normally, the executive board of councillors would recommend the budget to be formally passed at a later meeting of all 55 councillors.

The executive board meeting on Tuesday (February 13) instead saw the 10 executive Labour councillors abstaining on whether to recommend the budget. Councillor David Mellen, Nottingham City Council’s leader, says the move is something he has never seen before during his 17 years on the authority.

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Uncertainty therefore remains about what will happen at the full council meeting in March, when all councillors will be asked to have their final say on approving the budget. Asked about what would happen if a final budget is not agreed in March, Councillor Mellen said: “I think there will be legal consequences, there will be political consequences.

“If the council did that wholesale, then I would imagine the Government would certainly make their decision to impose commissioners and they would make that decision for us.” Tuesday’s meeting took place in the Council House and a large protest was held against the planned budget cuts before the meeting.

One of those present was 51-year-old Clare Healy, who has worked for Nottingham City Council since 2012 and is currently a community care officer at The Mary Potter Centre. The social care worker said: “I’m a social care user and a social care worker, so I feel like I’m being doubly affected”

Asked about whether budget plans meant her job was at risk, Ms Healy said: “They’ve said it will affect the management structure, but there are not enough people in that structure, so the 40 full-time-equivalent roles at risk next year will include frontline. It doesn’t make any sense because we know that prevention is cheaper. It’s going to be very expensive for the NHS and for Nottingham City Council.”

Social care worker Clare Healy pictured wearing a pink polkadot rain mac during a protest outside the Council House

Councillor Steve Battlemuch, the portfolio holder for skills, growth, economic development and property at Nottingham City Council, said during Tuesday’s meeting: “I think in the short term we may need to set up an emergency fund. We might need to ask business partners, entrepreneurs, larger charity foundations, to keep vital services going.”

The budget plans for the next financial year, starting in April, were first unveiled at the end of last year and around 5,400 people responded to the public consultation launched on them. Nottingham City Council said in December that even if all the planned savings were brought in, it would still be left with a budget gap of £33 million for the next financial year.

The council says that figure has now risen to £41 million, with an overall shortfall of £172 million across the next four years. The council has therefore applied for £65 million worth of help from the Government.

If the Government approves the council’s request, it would not be giving it a direct cash payment. Instead, it would allow the council greater flexibility in terms of using money from asset sales, which could then be used to plug its budget gap.

Although elected councillors will have the final say on the budget plans at a Council House meeting on March 4, Cllr Mellen says a recent Government instruction will effectively tie their hands. The Government’s Improvement and Assurance Board (IAB), which has been monitoring Nottingham since January 2021, has effectively said that councillors must approve all the savings plans proposed by officers.

Despite the ultimatum, Labour councillors at Tuesday’s meeting said they could not “in all good conscience” recommend the budget to be approved in March. Between now and then, they have asked council officers if any more can be done to avoid some of the harshest cuts and they are continuing to take legal advice about what will happen if a budget is not agreed.

Speaking about the current version of the budget, Councillor Mellen closed Tuesday’s meeting by saying: “It is undermining what holds communities together and it will leave Nottingham even worse off. Councillors are forced to be in a position to have to make these decisions against what we believe in, against the mandate we got from the people of Nottingham just last year, because our incompetent and cruel central Government shows little care for the people of Nottingham.”