Sheffield Council Budgets And The Deputy Prime Minister

EDM number 1663 in 2010-12, proposed by Clive Betts on 28/03/2011.
Categorised under the topic of Public expenditure.

That this House expresses concern at comments made by the Deputy Prime Minister and others that givethe impression that the Liberal Democrat-controlled Sheffield City Council is managing the reduction in its budget with less impact on services and jobs than other similar authorities when the true situation is that, according to the Council's own website, council job losses stand at 737 and, because of the high level of outsourcing of services in Sheffield, including museums, sports facilities, refuse collection and disposal and benefit administration, many of the job losses resulting from council cuts will be in the private and third sectors; notes that in addition, voluntary organisations such as citizen advice bureaux face cuts of 15 per cent., nearly double the reduction in the council's spending levels, and have only been given funding for six months; further notes that cuts to the library service of 1.3 million have not been specified so the public are not aware of the precise details of closures or reductions; and further notes that even the cuts that have been announced hide the real position as the council is running down reserves to what the council's Chief Executive and Executive Director of Resources state is a low level given the scale of risk in the 2011-12 budget, which is designed to postpone the worst impact of the cuts until after the 2011 local elections, requiring even bigger cuts in services and jobs in 2012-13.

This motion has been signed by a total of 14 MPs.