CUTBACKS in next year's council budget will be twice as large as any extra investment being ploughed into public services.

Harrow Council's Labour administration's draft budget shows councillors want to reign in spending by £12.6million – while money used to bolster services totals just £5.7million.

The budget will need to ratified by a majority vote at a full council meeting of Harrow Council in March.

But Councillor Susan Hall, leader of the Conservative opposition, said the confidential figures and the detail of the administration's financial plans were not being divulged to elected members to allow them to effectively challenge Labour's plans.

“I'm trying to get the information we requested as the opposition before I can make an informed comment but the lack of transparency is outrageous,” Ms Hall said. “We want to find out what was offered to portfolio holders as possible cuts.”

She added: “When we inherited the council four-and-a-half years ago from Labour, the budget situation was a complete disaster because all that was written down were 'efficiencies' and nothing about how they would made. Clearly, it was figures picked out of thin air and I'm worried the same thing has happened again.”

Council leader Councillor Bill Stephenson (Labour) said: "We are still untangling Harrow’s grant settlement, presented in such a way to mask the true scale of the reckless and severe cuts this government is making.

"Our draft budget was drawn up before we knew about the settlement, and it shows the scale of savings we need to make.  We are doing our damnedest to protect front line services and shield residents from the cuts.

"It is not easy to find around £19m savings to find, on top of in-year cuts, rising inflation and greater demand for many services, and we are listening carefully to what our residents have to say."

Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Noyce said: "In broad terms, Labour has got to cut its cloth to the demands of the Secretary of State. Remember, the outgoing Tory budget had £15million worth of cuts factored in already, and that was all ready to go."

Angela Dias, chief executive of the Harrow Association of Disabled People, said: "People have been asked to make choices about what they value most in keeping and I think that's the right way of going about it.

"As far as the council's Let's Talk campaign is concerned, we want people to be given more information about things, for example, the freedom pass, which some people don't realise actually costs the council whether they use or not and they may want to choose to not have one so as to not waste public finances. Keeping people informed is a useful way of saving money."

Steve Compton, assistant branch secretary of public sector union Unison, said: "We have two main concerns: one is the reduction in funding in children's services which impacts quite hard on staff levels. The other issue is that the council wishes to review the terms of conditions of all employees. Obviously, they think they can save a few bob but where there's a saving, there has to be compensation. The council needs to save money but not to the detriment of the people who work there."

Budgets at a glance - see page 2

ADULT SOCIAL CARE

Councillors intend to invest an additional £1.5million to cover the rising costs of providing social care.

A spokesman said: “Increasing numbers of young people with complex learning and physical disabilities are transferring through to adult social care when they turn 18 and at the other end of the spectrum, older people with complex disabilities are living longer, so we're putting money into the service.”

Reducing the amount of external day care provision saves £300,000 while £200,000 can be cut off expenditure via the loss of employees through the voluntary severance scheme in which workers can leave their job with a lump sum of six month's pay.

The council reckons it can attribute £350,000 of savings to its reablement service through which vulnerable patients coming out of hospital get six weeks' free social care to ease their return home and ward off complications.

The intensive assistance helps reduce future dependency on social care, meaning the authority does not need to spend as much money on assisting these people.

Furthermore, renegotiating social care contracts is intended to reduce spending by £850,000 and a £1million is to be saved by cutting reliance on agency staff.

An extra £100,000 is being taken out of special needs transport following a review and rationalisation of the service as agreed in October by the cabinet committee.

The spokesman said: “In these areas we can make economies of scale without any impact of the quality of service provided.”

CHILDREN'S SERVICES

The council has a duty to look after unaccompanied asylum seekers but since the Government grant for this only covers part of the cost, councillors are having to top up this amount with £280,000 in 2011/12. The rising cost of safeguarding and looking after children requires an extra £600,000.

By slimming down its subsidy for Connexions, the advisory service for 13- to 19-year-olds, the council hopes to save £300,000 and by scrapping youth workers and services for specific activities, a further £400,000 of expenditure can be wiped off.

A spokesman said: "It's a proposal to reduce the universal careers information advice and guidance that is available to all young people and instead become more targeted with it and going for the most vulnerable young people."

SPECIAL NEEDS TRANSPORT

A review and rationalisation of this service for both children and adults, as agreed by the council's cabinet committee in October, will produce a slim overall saving of £15,000.

This includes investment in new home-to-school routes for youngsters with special educational needs and a lump sum used to plug a gap in minibus rental income is balanced as well as a reduction in outgoings.

CULTURE

The introduction of self-service machines to the borough's libraries and the accompanying loss of 34 members of library staff – as agreed in October by the Labour administration's cabinet committee – will cut outgoings by an estimated £780,000.

Plans are afoot to slashing the outgoings of the schools music services by £100,000, and of this a council spokesman said: “We're looking to reduce the operational costs costs of this service and there will be a review in 2011/12. It currently costs £360,000 a year.”

ENVIRONMENT

Savings of £791,000 could be made through the investment in new technology in the street cleaning and grounds maintenance department, leading to 34 redundancies.

This project, agreed by the council's cabinet committee in October, provides teams with mobile technology to track and map their work in real time in the most efficient way. Meanwhile, the council's contribution to the West London Waste Authority will cost £350,000.

Paying for its carbon emissions will cost the council £303,000 since in the spending review the Government scrapped the idea of rebates.

Income from the London Permit Scheme – where by utility companies have to buy permission for roadworks or risk fines for proceeding without it - is to total £230,000.

OUTSIDE BODIES

The council wants to slash its contribution to Brent and Harrow Trading Standards Service by £200,000.

COUNCIL TAX

Council tax looks to be frozen next year after the Government enticed authorities to hold the rates at the same levels through the promise of a cash equivalent to a 2.5 per cent rise. However, from 2012/13, Harrow Council is proposing annual increases of 2.5 per cent.

PLACE SHAPING

The council has earmarked £219,000 for the completion of the Local Development Framework – a collection of documents that will become the planning blueprint for the development of the borough.

FINANCE

Investment in new computing technology will set the council back £1,608,000 while being stricter about how the authority procures services, staff and equipment is intended to reduce spending by £1,500,000.

STAFFING

The number of staff working in Access Harrow – the council's combined reception and call centre – and its communications team will be reduced to save money while the £550,000 originally set aside for a pay rise can now be spent elsewhere due to the national public sector pay freeze.

That said, the 1 per cent increase in national insurance contributions for the council's 7,000 staff will cost an additional £700,000 and pension contributions an extra £250,000.

REVENUE BUDGET 2011/12

Directorate/Investment/Savings

Cross-Cutting Transformation/£0m/£0.5m
Adults and Housing/£1.5m/£4m
Children’s Services/£1.3m/£2.2m
Community and Environment/£0.6m/£2.9m
Place Shaping/£0.4m/£0.5m
Legal and Governance/£0.1m/£0m
Finance/£1.8m/£1.8m
Chief Executive/£0m/£0.7m

Total/£5.7m/£12.6m