DESPITE proposals to make £49-million of savings next year across the various directorates at Cornwall Council, the local authority still finds itself with a £9-million gap in what has been described as “the most challenging budget” in the council’s history.

Council officers believe that financial gap may worsen after the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, makes her Autumn Budget statement on Wednesday. The council’s new Budget Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OCS) will discuss proposals for the 2025/26 budget at County Hall / Lys Kernow in Truro the day after the Chancellor’s statement.

The proposals for the OSC are being put forward by council officers on how to reach a balanced budget which is achievable and lawful. These include increases to fees and charges, workforce controls and some reductions to service levels. However, even with the proposed savings, the council still faces a £9-million shortfall which must be found in some way.

No budget decisions will be taken until February next year at a full council meeting. However, it is expected that the council will have to levy a maximum Council Tax increase of 4.99 per cent for the third year running.

Cllr David Harris, the deputy leader of Cornwall Council and portfolio holder for resources – who commented this will be the local authority’s most challenging budget yet – said: “None of these measures are by any means desirable – and this is where Government needs to wake up and understand that the demand for essential services like temporary accommodation, adult social care and SEND provision for young people are rising so fast that no amount of efficiencies and savings put forward by officers can address the shortfall.

“We are on a precipice and unless there are some major changes to the way local authorities are funded announced in the Budget, we are facing some exceedingly difficult choices.”

He added: “The lack of clarity about the Shared Prosperity Fund [the central government funding which replaced European Union grants following Brexit] will compound the problem. The funding runs out in March. We want to invest in the future to make Cornwall a better place for the next generation. We cannot fund economic growth beyond that date with no money.”

In a report to Thursday’s budget scrutiny committee meeting, Cllr Harris states: “You have heard me going on about money for ages and despite all the moaning, letter writing, etc, we really have made no progress while we have suffered the ravages of Covid, inflation and quite staggering levels of increase in demand for some of the statutory services that we provide (I accept that we got Covid funding but there does seem to have been some long term effects here).

“This year’s budget was only balanced by dipping into cash reserves [to the tune of £11.4-million], something that I flagged at the time and something that our auditors have warned is (obviously) unsustainable.”

At the time of writing the budget proposals report for Thursday’s meeting, the council’s chief operating officer Tracie Langley said officers had identified a number of risks that will impact negatively on Cornwall, some of which could be included in the Autumn Statement.

Cornwall Council operates an annual spend of over £1.5 billion, delivering a wide range of frontline services for more than 500,000 residents, from schools to adult social care, waste and recycling services, highways maintenance, winter preparedness, business regulation, planning and social housing services to a highly dispersed rural population. The unitary authority has already delivered more than £143m of savings in the past five years.

As the UK’s largest predominantly rural unitary authority, Cornwall faces some unique challenges in serving residents with some of the lowest household incomes in Europe, weak infrastructure and an economy that remains reliant on seasonal tourism and hospitality, farming and fishing. Cornwall also has a “super-ageing population”: while the UK is predicted to reach one in four being over the age of 65 by 2050, the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly population already has one in four aged 65 and over, with our older population set to grow and the working age population set to shrink.

Cllr Harris said: “We are working hard to minimise the impact on residents by ‘turning the burners down’ rather than stopping services completely. But we have a shortfall that cannot be addressed without making complex decisions. Not addressing that shortfall means not balancing the books and that would be far worse for residents in Cornwall in the long run.”

The Budget Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting will take place in the Trelawny Room at County Hall / Lys Kernow, Truro on Thursday, October 31, starting at 10am.