Telford & Wrekin Council 'well-placed' to meet extra £1 million cut
Telford & Wrekin Council today insisted it is well placed to deal with £1 million of cuts it has to find by 2016.
It says it has "every confidence" that it will identify the savings in the next 18 months.
The Shropshire Star revealed on Wednesday that the council faces the gap in its budget.
Council leaders said they had identified earlier this year £21 million of £22 million savings it must find by March 2016, due to cuts in Government grant. They say they have already made £53 million of savings in the last four years and managed to meet its budget.
Councillor Bill McClements, cabinet member for finance, said the £1 million deficit was not a sudden "black hole" but part of a managed programme of cuts.
He said: "We regularly publish our financial monitoring and highlighted this potential shortfall in February.
"Our savings plans published so far have identified £21 million of the £22 million we must find by 2016 due to cuts in Government grant. This leaves us a further £1 million to find over the next 18 months or so.
"This is less than one per cent of the council's net budget and puts us in an enviable position compared with most other authorities many of whom are struggling to cope with finding ways to achieve significantly larger saving figures.
"For us the real challenge will come in the years after 2016, when based on Government projections we expect that we are likely to face further cuts in the funding we receive from Government in the region of £10m to £12m a year through to 2018/19."
