Sign up to FREE email alerts from Liverpool Echo - Weekly Politics Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Three hundred jobs are set to go at Liverpool City Council and a council tax rise of nearly 5% is coming in as part of Joe Anderson’s plan to fill a £90m funding black hole.

The Mayor’s latest budget proposals could also see four of the city’s libraries close in two years.

There will also be major cuts to the council’s One Stop Shops - where people access council services and the authority’s contact centre will have its opening hours slashed.

(Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

Mayor Anderson said the cuts are needed because of the ongoing “attack” on local authorities by the Conservative Government and its austerity policies.

But the proposed three-year budget will also pump an extra £2m into street cleansing, a further £2m will be set aside to support the most vulnerable and £1.5m will be spent on the city’s Lifestyle fitness centres.

Mayor Anderson also plans to raise just under £1m by opening new car parks in the city and extending the opening hours of existing ones.

Here is a look at the main budget headlines in more detail...

Council tax

(Image: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Mayor Anderson, who last year scrapped plans for a referendum on a planned 10% tax rise, is proposing that residents pay an extra 4.99% this year.

This is the current maximum rise that a local authority can implement without a public vote.

That figure is made up a 1.99% rise to be spent generally, as well as a 3% rise to be spent specifically on social care.

That is something the Government has allowed councils to do - and authorities can spread an extra 6% rise for this area across the next three years.

Liverpool’s plan is to bring in the overall 4.99% rise in each of the next two years - but this would mean that in 2019/20 the council would be limited to a 1.99% rise as it would have used up the extra social care precept.

300 jobs to go

Mayor Anderson said he expects to cut about 300 jobs over the next three years - which would make the total amount of council staff cut since 2010 around 2,700.

But the Mayor said he is confident that these posts can be cut while sticking to the council’s record of never forcing people to take redundancy.

He said: “That figure of 300 is down from the 500 that had been suggested previously.

“I have met with the unions and they are obviously very disappointed that so many jobs will go, but we are confident that we can meet these job losses without any compulsory redundancies - which is something we have never done.”

He added: “I am so proud of the staff at this council for what they continue to achieve despite the huge problems we face in terms of budgets cuts.”

More detail about where the job cuts will be made is expected in due course.

Libraries

In his budget plan, Mayor Anderson says he will set up a task force to review the libraries service in order to save £1.6m in the year 2018/19.

This task force will find different ways to keep libraries running, through working with different community groups - but the Mayor accepts there are likely to be closures.

He said: “Hopefully we will be able to do things like transfer the running of libraries to community groups to run.

“But it is likely that around four libraries will close in 2019.”

One Stop Shops and contact centre

There are currently eight One Stop Shops dotted around the city, which allow people to access all manner of council services under one roof.

These will be severely cut back, with Mayor Anderson looking for a saving of £2.7m and inevitable job losses in this area.

The main city centre facility, which is currently based in the now-sold Municipal Buildings, is likely to be moved inside St John’s Shopping Centre.

The opening hours of the council’s contact centre will also be cut back, with a saving of £2.9m planned, which the Mayor accepts will mean “it will take people longer to get a response to requests for some services.”

Helping the vulnerable

(Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

Mayor Anderson said it is the principle aim of his administration to protect the vulnerable in the city.

He said this is why any cuts to adult and children’s social care will account for just 8% of the overall savings proposed and extra funding from business rates will be spent on social care.

He has also announced an extra £2m fund to help the city’s most vulnerable, which will offer a range of support to people including crisis payments, food, fuel, clothing and furniture help and Discretionary Housing Payments.

Children’s services

A big cut of £4.1m will be found in this department by reducing the cost of care placements and packages and increasing the amount of in-house foster carers to cut down on paying agencies.

Children’s centres are safe again for the next 12 months, with the aim of finding future funding options within the year.

Spending plans

It is not all about cuts in this three-year budget. Mayor Anderson is proposing to fork out a fair bit of cash to clean up the city and promote growth.

An extra £2m each year will be spent on street cleansing in a bid to improve the image of the city.

Mayor Anderson said: “I actually apologise to people for the state of our streets, it breaks my heart to see how appalling they look, so we are putting money into that area.”

New car parks and longer opening hours for existing facilities will being in £920,000 over three years.

The Lifestyle fitness centres in the city will get a £1.5m facelift in a bid to attract more customers.

And the Mayor has found £300,000 to protect all school crossing patrols.

And he has set aside a further £13m in reserves for use in 2018/19 and 2019/20 to reduce the impact of cuts in future years.

Business Rates

From April this year the council will be taking part in a pilot scheme in which it will keep 100% of the business rates it collects, instead of the 49% it currently does.

This is ahead of the Government target that by 2020 all councils will be largely dependent on council tax and business rates by 2020.

There are lots of fears that councils, particularly in northern cities like Liverpool, could be adversely affected by the changes but Mayor Anderson said he has fought for a ‘no detriment’ clause in the pilot deal, meaning extra government funding will be handed to Liverpool to make sure it does not lose out.

The Mayor said that cash - which will total £27m by 2020 - can now be put towards supporting the council’s social care sector.

Why these cuts?

Explaining his budget proposals, Mayor Anderson said: “These are not things that we want to do but we have no choice, because the Government isn’t listening and as the majority of people who responded to our budget consultation said they wouldn’t support a one-off 10% rise in council tax.

“The object of my administration is to protect the vulnerable - something our city does better than anywhere else - and that is at the heart of this budget, but I can’t magic away the problems we have.

“But we will have to be largely dependent on income from business rates and council tax from 2020, so it is vital that we attract employers and help create jobs and help people on to the housing ladder.”

Hitting out at the Government’s austerity policies, he added: “They are not rebalancing the economy, they are just continuing to attack local government.”

The Mayor’s budget proposals will be voted on at a special city council budget meeting on March 8.