Local authorities will receive £1.8bn less in capital receipts from property or land in 2009/10, and £600M less in interest from savings, putting pressure on transportation capital programmes.
A Local Government Association survey suggested that, with income falling by £2.5bn overall this coming financial year, 70% of councils are anticipating having to make staff cuts. Fifty per cent had already, the LGA said, with Southwest and Southeast England hardest hit.
This contrasted with the more upbeat statements by local authority technical officers responding to a Surveyor questionnaire, indicating that two-thirds of authorities would not make redundancies in transportation (Surveyor, 5 February).
Alison Quant, vice-president of the County Surveyors’ Society, said falling income was having a much bigger impact on smaller district and unitary authorities. ‘Some counties are cutting budgets, but generally that’s more about an efficiencies drive, rather than about reducing the level of service.’
Hampshire was maintaining highways repairs spending, despite a lower-than-average council tax rise of 1.9%, and the only staff cuts were a reduction in the number of administrative staff by 18.
‘County councils aren’t, for the most part, laying off employees in transportation departments,’ Quant added. As Surveyor’s research suggested, a number of authorities would reduce the use of temporary staff, or re-deploy staff, rather than deleting posts.
Swindon and Hammersmith & Fulham are two smaller-sized authorities that have announced cuts in staffing levels of local transportation departments for 2009/10. However, Quant did acknowledge that county council capital spending in some parts of the country was dependent on local income such as capital receipts.
Hampshire’s capital receipts had fallen from £40M to £5M, forcing a reduction in the transport capital programme from £13M three years ago to £4M this year. There have been calls for a fiscal stimulus for local transport, so that authorities can pump money into local economies, while improving infrastructure (Surveyor, 22 January).
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