Unions hope to safeguard jobs after Derbyshire council announces strategy to reduce feared £46m budget overspend

Derbyshire County Council Leader Barry Lewis conceded that the local authority is in a “terrible situation” like many other councils across the country battling to reduce budgets over the coming months and blaming inflation, wage increases, the cost-of-living crisis and cost pressures for their plight.

But both the UK’s biggest trade union UNISON, and the GMB union, have both made it clear they will be fighting to protect jobs, terms and conditions and services for their members.

UNISON East Midlands Regional Organiser Dave Ratchford said: “We are prepared to work fully with the council to safeguard services and staff.

“We obviously have concerns over some of Derbyshire’s activities including the £57 million paid out to a private contractor who failed to deliver waste management, but the primary issue here is the endless series of real terms cuts to council funding over the last decade.

“UNISON are calling for the Government to step in to provide local councils with the funding they desperately need.”

The struggling Conservative-led county council paid out a £57m share of a total £93.5m pay out with Derby City Council to a waste management team’s administrators to resolve a dispute after the local authorities had terminated a contract with the waste management team to manage a waste facility in Sinfin, Derby.

In addition, the county council has announced plans to close ten of its Chesterfield area offices, and it has been looking at cutting opening hours and bringing in potential charges at its household waste tips and it is also looking at possibly selling off its County Hall building, at Matlock, which may be converted into a hotel, or residential space, offices and community facilities.

The council now aims to also look at its ear-marked reserves in an effort to control the looming multi-million pound deficit as Cllr Lewis said he was sure the council will be able to manage this “terrible situation” following the announcement of the predicted overspend on its budget by March, 2024, of £46m.

Cllr Lewis said he was particularly concerned about protecting social services and children’s services but he said the council hopes that by taking the right action and adopting the right measures, savings can be made to reduce the overspend by also looking at essential and non-essential services, staffing and overtime.

The Cabinet approved a report during a meeting on September 21 which highlights the pressures on its finances in the current financial year and the “cost control measures” that are to be implemented in an attempt to reduce the forecasted £46m overspend.

Cost-cutting measures, formally announced after the meeting, have raised understandable concerns among staff and UNISON and GMB members working for the county council.

These measures include: Plans to introduce a recruitment freeze, apart from absolutely essential roles such as social care front line positions; Reducing agency staff; Reducing overtime and additional hours worked by employees; Reviewing all agency staff; No non-essential conferences, travel or training; Only health and safety repairs on properties; Reducing spend on print, IT equipment and stationery; Delaying unsigned contracts; And postponing projects which are still in the planning stage.

UNISON is so concerned it is calling on the Westminster Government to urgently address what it calls the ‘broken’ local government funding system that it claims has led Derbyshire County Council, like many others, into financial crisis.

The union claims local authorities in England have seen reductions in Government grants since 2010, after The National Audit Office estimated in 2018 that Local Authorities’ spending power had fallen by 49.1per cent in real terms between 2010/11 and 2017/18.

Cllr Lewis told the cabinet meeting the county council is already working very hard and is looking at essential and non-essential services, and it is also hoping to lobby the Government for support and is looking at staffing and overtime.

He said: “We will work hard as an authority to work through this particular issue. Even in the last few days we have been having in depth discussions to get to the bottom of these issues.”

In a statement he also stressed, “this is not a bankruptcy situation for this council,” and he claimed that despite being a “well-managed” council it, like many others, is facing unprecedented financial pressures, most of which have been out of its control.

Derbyshire County Council is one of the region’s largest employers with around 30,000 staff. It has an income of £637 million per annum and provides services to more than 807,000 people, according to UNISON.

UNSON, which has more than 1.3m members employed in both the public and private sectors, has previously stated that the Government needs to better fund councils and local services.