London council facing bankruptcy to make raft of extreme cost cutting measures

A London borough has projected a raft of utmost outgo cutting measures and requested exigency authorities backing arsenic its homelessness measure pushes it to the brink of bankruptcy.

Newham council is readying to halt financing Christmas and Eid lights to prevention £200,000. It has besides suggested removing escaped tea and coffee for unit successful its offices and banning interior catering, specified arsenic biscuits, for meetings successful a hopeless bid to prevention cash.

All of the council’s fees and charges, excluding parking and commercialized rents, are expected to summation by 20 per cent. A Council Tax Reduction Scheme, which spot poorer residents look little payments, could beryllium scaled backmost arsenic the municipality hallway attempts to find £20.3million of contiguous savings astatine a gathering adjacent week.

Other measures see opening a consultation connected giving up its swanky Dockside offices other London City Airport and selling disconnected different spot assets, specified arsenic the Debden House league centre successful Essex.

Newham is besides proposing it halt maintaining its bowling greens to prevention £24,000-a-year and chopped its fittingness schemes for the elderly.

Documents, owed to beryllium discussed connected Tuesday, uncover the assembly is successful "discussions" with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) for exigency backing “in airy of the impermanent accommodation situation facing Newham".

It does not accidental however overmuch it has requested from cardinal authorities but is predicting a fund spread of £175million implicit the adjacent 3 years. Some £100million of this would beryllium down to spiralling impermanent accommodation costs owed to expanding rents and homelessness successful the borough, the assembly said.

Newham is supporting astir 6,500 families successful impermanent accommodation and has much than 38,000 households connected its societal lodging waiting list.

Councillor Zulfiqar Ali, furniture subordinate for concern and resources said: “No 1 volition contradict that the choices we are going to person to marque are difficult.

“For Newham, this volition not beryllium due to the fact that we person failed successful our fiscal absorption approach; alternatively past authorities argumentation and the inefficacies of the lodging marketplace successful London and the UK has failed us.

“We person already asked the authorities for Exceptional Financial Support and are waiting for the outcome.”

So acold 19 section authorities person requested assistance from the government’s EFS scheme, and it is expected galore much volition travel this twelvemonth and next.

Earlier this twelvemonth cash-strapped Havering was granted a last-minute £54million authorities indebtedness to forestall it plummeting into bankruptcy.

In a cost-cutting fund the municipality hallway agreed to dim thoroughfare lighting connected main roads, research alternate bin collections and reappraisal children’s centres and libraries.

Newham Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz said. “We person pledged to beryllium unfastened and honorable astir the issues facing us, and we are moving hard to place each savings.

“We are a well-managed, financially liable assembly but the further costs of a 26 per cent emergence successful request for impermanent lodging are the quality betwixt america being capable to equilibrium our fund some past twelvemonth and this.

“Most London boroughs person present published accusation which shows they look precisely the aforesaid issues arsenic we do. But we inactive person to instrumentality steps to bash each we tin to mitigate the concern present – and this is the commencement of the process.”