THURROCK Council Leader, Cllr John Kent, highlighted areas where the council had made savings over the past year when he was speaking in the budget debate on Wednesday (26 February).
He said that although a two-year budget had been agreed in 2013, “that doesn’t mean we’ve stood still this past year, we’ve been working hard to deliver savings”.
He said the council had negotiated “with the water companies so they pay us £200,000 more for collecting their water rates and cut housing management costs by £230,000.”
Other savings and income highlighted included “£1,000-a-day by more efficient management of our assets”, “an extra £6 million business rates income over the next four years by negotiating our pooling arrangements with neighbouring councils”, and shared management and shared services, where the council “will have saved over half a million pounds, an estimated £560,000 in 2013/14, compared to £360,000 the year before”.
Cllr Kent added: “In public health we successfully fought and battled for months to get the £1.1 million in Public Health grant we should have received at the start of the year; we have saved over £150,000 by bringing a number of people with learning disabilities back home to Thurrock from expensive out-of-borough placements – better for them and their families; and we have reduced the use of temporary accommodation – including bed and breakfast – for the most vulnerable saving, so far, £100,000. All the more important when we know the amount of people sleeping rough in the UK has risen by a third under this government.”
He said: “We have moved teenage students on to the popular post-16 bus pass, allowing them to travel around the borough throughout the week and us to deliver over £100,000 of savings; and by making our work with young people Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETs) everyone’s job, we have not only saved £81,000 but our performance has improved, too.
“Our NEET figures are now at 5½ per cent – a reduction of 1.1 percentage points from a year ago, and the number of our young people not known to the system is down to 0.3 per cent a reduction of 6.1 per cent from December 2012 – the best performance in the country.”
