Brent Council to consult on another £26m cuts to its services

Cllr Muhammed Butt Archant

More austerity lies ahead for people in Brent including the possible closure of all children’s centres and slashes to litter services as part of proposed £26million cuts.

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The local council election count taking place at the Brent Civic Centre The local council election count taking place at the Brent Civic Centre

Council chiefs will discuss a list of budget cuts and savings on October 15 which will then be passed on for a public consultation.

The “most difficult” proposals listed on its website include reducing the provision of day care services, introducing 15-minute calls in care homes, and slashes to the council tax support scheme, which protects the most vulnerable.

The closure of the Abbey Road Recycling Centre and the reduction of “some of” the library opening times are also earmarked for the chop.

Brent says it is forced to find about £40m in savings over the next four years due to cuts in government funding.

In the last eight years, Whitehall austerity has imposed £164m worth of savings on Brent Council, equivalent to cutting annual spend on core services from £920 per head in 2010 to roughly £550 today.

Cllr Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council, said: “Despite the prime minister’s promise that austerity is over, the reality facing Brent is that by 2020 the money we receive directly from government will have has been slashed by 79 per cent.

“As a result, it currently looks like we will need to save around £40million over the next four years.

“While everyone in the council is working flat out to protect core services as much as possible, the coming years are going to be our biggest challenge yet.”

He added: “The cabinet report sets out some challenging proposals, some of which are very difficult decisions to take.

“Thankfully we will not need to agree everything that is proposed when the final decision is taken in February to agree a balanced budget over the next two years.

“But we do have some genuine choices to make and it is really important that we hear your views about these draft proposals so we end up delivering the services that matter most to people.

“I urge everyone to take part in the consultation or use the budget simulator [at brentcouncil.budgetsimulator.com] and help us to balance the books.”

Brent Connect meetings and pop up forums will start to take place after October 15 when the formal consultation will begin.

Click here to read through proposals.