Last update: 24 January 2012 

Over the next three months, councils around the country will begin to agree budgets for 2012. The agreement of these budgets – and the service cuts they entail – will mark the start of the second year of appalling cuts to local government services.

Adult care services, children’s care services, daycentres for people with disabilities, daycentres for the elderly, respite carehomes, libraries, youth centres, youth offices, children’s homes – vital local government services took massive hits around the country in 2011. More will go as the government’s slashing of local government grants continues.

I’m drawing up a list of proposed council cuts around the country, job losses expected and council meetings where cuts proposals will be agreed over the next few months (have also pointed out privatisation threats here and there). Generally, council budgets are agreed in February and March at full council meetings.

Points to note: specifics seem harder to come by than last year. There’s a lot of rhetoric in council documents about departments having to cut costs, but less about actual services that will be lost or shut. That may be because the cuts proposed on those lists drew a lot of lightning last year. When councils named the libraries, daycentres, and carehomes they planned to cut, people publicised that information and organised campaigns around them. It’s a lot harder to campaign around general statements about reducing budgets. Anticuts activists are accusing councils of caginess and they have a point. More on that as things develop.

Job losses will be a real problem. Unemployment is already climbing and estimates show that councils are expecting to make thousands more people redundant this year, often in parts of the country least able to cope (national unemployment is highest in the north east of England, where both the public and private sectors are shedding jobs). That is not good news, with the jobless rate over eight percent already. In the north east of England, unemployment is over 11%.

Another point worth noting is that a lot of councils are (almost pointedly) running public consultation exercises on cuts – they’re crowdsourcing views on services to slash. This may because councils were subject to public and legal pressure last year for failing to consult service users about cuts proposals. It’s probably also a useful way to diffuse anger about cuts – the more a council meets and talks with people, the more often it can ram home the “we have no choice except to cut” line.

Will be adding details for more councils, and adding and changing numbers as things become clearer and more information becomes available.

List:

Anglesey council (h-t @londonhackette)
A total shambles. Run by commissioners appointed by the Welsh government, this council released a bleak budget this week (16 January) which outlined how schools could be hit with 5% cuts, swimming facilities closed and road maintenance budgets slashed.

The linked story also says taxpayers could face a 5% rise in bills this year which may rise to 15% over three years. The council’s commissioners say they must save £4.5m this year and up to £11m over three years. Commissioners say jobs will be lost, although numbers were unclear at the time of writing. Anglesey council also misses out on elections this year – commissioners will be kept in place, it seems, until the council recovers from “stability problems” identified by the Audit Commission. Intriguing.

Budget cut for 2012: £4.5m (£11m over three years)
Job losses: Numbers not known but job losses likely
Threatened services: Services across the council, including schools and leisure services.
Date budget and cuts to be agreed on: Full council meeting March 6 2012.

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Barnet council:
Our favourite mass-privatising council plans to cut another £43m from budgets by reducing services and introducing higher parking charges, among other initiatives. The linked story says the council will cut £14.5m from adult social care and £9.5m from children’s services.

No matter, presumably, that the council found £750m in 2011 to engage a private partner in a “support and customer services project.” That project will see a private company (possibly Capita) delivering services like council estates, finance, human resources, information systems, procurement, revenues and benefits and project management services. No matter either that hard-hitting reports last year asked serious questions about Barnet council’s ability to manage procurement processes and relationships with the private sector. Look for private companies to do very well out of Barnet council this year. There has always been plenty of money at Barnet council for those who need it least.

Budget cut for 2012: £43m (might be spread over several years)
Job losses: The council says 100. Unison says many more than that if the council pursues its plans to mass-outsource services.
Threatened services: Services across the council, including adult social care and children’s services.
Date budget and cuts to be agreed on: Possibly full council meeting January 24 2012.

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Birmingham City Council:
The council is consulting on cuts it wants to make to achieve £65m reductions in its 2012-13 budget. The BBC is reporting that could mean the loss of up to 1200 jobs– which would be disastrous for Birmingham. The story says that nearly 2500 jobs were lost in 2011. Major job (and therefore service) losses are expected in areas including A&C home care, CYPF children’s homes,  adult social care residential homes and adoption and fostering, according to Birmingham Unison.

The proposed budget will go before cabinet on 13 February and full council on 28 February.

Budget cut for 2012: £65m
Job losses: 1200
Threatened services: Services across the council, including home care, children’s homes and residential homes.
Date budget and cuts to be agreed on: 28 February 2012 at full council meeting.

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Blackpool council
The Blackpool Gazette is reporting that there will be considerable service cuts and job losses this year as the council looks for £10m in savings.

Compulsory redundancy figures could be around 100 – which may mean that there are voluntary redundancies on top of that. Unions are predicting losses of at least 200. Last year, the council made cuts to the tune of £27m and shed 750 jobs. That figure included around 350 compulsory redundancies. Over 2011 to 2012, then, the council’s job losses will near 1000. That’s a lot of jobs.

Budget cut for 2012: £10m
Job losses: 100-200
Threatened services: Services across the council? Consultation is ongoing and voluntary redundancies are apparently being sought across the council.
Date budget and cuts to be agreed on: February 2012 at full council meeting (tbc).

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Bradford council:
One to watch closely. This confusing story suggests that the council intends to both protect and cut frontline services in adult social care. The council says that cuts of £31m will be required to balance books. The story says that departments like adult and community services and children and young people’s services are among those likely to be cuts.

About 600 job losses are expected. Council leader Ian Greenwood says it would be dishonest to say those job losses won’t affect services (and he’s right. It would be). Consultation on proposals (full list here) lasts until 7 February 2012 and the budget will be decided at a full council meeting on Thursday 23 February 2012.

Budget cut for 2012: £31m
Job losses: 600
Threatened services: Across the council.
Date budget and cuts to be agreed on: 23 February 2012 at full council meeting.

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Bristol city council:
Bristol is consulting on £21m in jobs and services to be cut from April 2012. Anticuts groups say that the council is releasing the bare minimum of information and disguising plans. Battlegrounds this year will include council plans to close or privatise care homes and day centres for the elderly (there’s a list of threatened centres at the end of this post) and to cut £1m from the youth services budget. Job losses of 350 are being touted. Bristol city council will finalise cuts decisions at a full council meeting on 28 February 2012.

Budget cut 2012: £21m
Job losses: 350
Threatened services: youth services, services for the elderly
Date budget and cuts to be agreed on: Council meeting, 28 February 2012

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