Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Where we need to make future savings

The scale of the spending cuts announced in the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review and the confirmation of a revenue support grant cut for Stockton of 12.1% in 2011/12 - well above the national average of 9.9% - makes further significant reductions  unavoidable. Because of this we will be reviewing the following services to achieve further savings.

These are:

• Learning Disability and Mental Health Services
• Review of School Improvement
• Care for Your Area - including refuse collection, ground maintenance and street cleansing
• Community Safety and Security
• Children's Social Care and Safeguarding
• Waste Management
• Housing Benefits
• Legal Services
• Registration and Bereavement
• Housing and Regeneration
• Children's Centres, Sure Start and other early intervention services

We would like your views on the areas identified, or if you have any suggestions of how we can make these savings next year, please send them to budget@stockton.gov.uk.

Government grants that may also be stopped

There are a number of additional grants that we get from Government which fund specific projects or services. Some of these have already been stopped or are likely to stop in the future.

Stockton Council receives £30 million of these specific grants every year. These include the Working Neighbourhoods Fund, which supports people into jobs, and the Future Jobs Fund.

All of the services funded by these grants will be reviewed to consider whether they could be reconfigured, delivered in a different way or reduced significantly.

The impact of funding being withdrawn from these projects and the reductions in the other areas we have reviewed means that unfortunately we will have to reduce our staff numbers by around 250 over the next four years. To help all those staff affected, we have developed a full programme of support. The trade unions will continue to be involved in this and we have made every effort to keep staff informed about the budget pressures and the difficult decisions that we have to take.

Funding from other organisations

Other parts of the public sector are also facing budget cuts. This will have an even greater impact on those services and facilities that we fund with others. For example, there will be less money available from the Arts Council to support the likes of Arc and the Tees Music Alliance.

In these cases we will be working with the other funding partners to explore ways of how services could be delivered in a different way or where charges could be introduced.

It is a time of significant change for us all but we will continue to keep residents updated on Stockton Council's budget position in future issues of Stockton News and our website.