As the crisis in local government funding continues to impact on councils across the country, Nottingham City Council has highlighted that it faces a £50 million gap in its budget for the 2024/25 year, which will have a major impact on its services, including transport.
A report to the council’s Executive Board on 19 December set out a range of initial proposals to make the savings needed to balance the budget. Increased pressure on local governments has included the cost of increased demand for children’s and adults’ social care and rising homelessness presentations, which accounted for 62.5% of the council’s revenue budget last year, and led to a £23 million overspend in 2023. Among the services at risk, alongside other factors such as library service provision and the operation of community centres, is a plan to reduce public transport infrastructure to minimum statutory provision including the removal of funding to operate two bus-based park & ride sites, Victoria bus station, and the real time passenger information system.
Additionally, the council plans to reduce all Linkbus services to statutory minimum provision, remove the Easylink service and withdraw funding contribution to the Medilink service, and carry out a review of concessionary fares in conjunction with the wider region and emerging combined authority, which it says will ensure consistency of approach.
Cllr David Mellen, the Leader of Nottingham City Council, said: “Every day now, headlines tell of the crisis in local government funding and the impact this is having on councils across the country. As things stand, unfortunately the budget pressures we are seeing are unlikely to reduce next year and like many councils, we are facing a serious gap in our budget for 2024/25.
“We want to be open and transparent about the scale of the challenge the council faces and the difficult decisions that need to be made and give people the chance to have their say. After the initial proposals being put forward by officers have been considered by councillors, a public consultation will take place before any final decisions are made when the budget for 2024/25 is set in February.”
