Showing posts with label single unitary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label single unitary. Show all posts

Tuesday 4 September 2018

Message from Nigel Kennedy, Head of Financial Services, Oxford City Council



Message from Nigel Kennedy, Head of Financial Services, Oxford City Council

Colleagues may have seen news reports that Oxfordshire County Council announced plans for significant changes yesterday. The Leader of the County Council, Councillor Ian Hudspeth, said they wanted to introduce a new operating model to improve efficiency and increase the provision of services online. The County Council says it is seeking savings of £34-£58 million a year by streamlining services. It acknowledges this is likely to involve a reduction in staff numbers over time by up to 890 people, though it said it expected, with staff turnover of about 650 a year, that most of the jobs lost would be taken out of that pool, with a smaller level of compulsory redundancies. The proposals will go before the full County Council meeting on 11 September.

These savings were identified as part of last year’s budget setting process, and the County Council has been working on a plan with consultants for the last 12 months. The City Council set a balanced budget last year, over the four-year budget plan, with savings of around £7m already identified. We are in the process of reviewing the budget for the next four-year planning period, and whilst it’s safe to say we will have financial challenges we are not in the same financial position as the County Council.






Wednesday 1 August 2018

Update on unitary bid 2018

The Government has announced that it will not be making a decision on the proposals for a single unitary council for Oxfordshire for the foreseeable future – and that it “would be wrong” to commit to a timetable to consider them.

The Minister for Local Government provided the update in a letter to the Leaders of South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils, which the two councils made public yesterday.

In his letter, Rishi Sunak MP said: “It would be wrong for Government to commit now to any particular timetable for considering the unitary proposal, although we remain open to considering the views of any Oxfordshire council about unitary proposals.”

He cited as reasons for the decision the new partnership arrangements between Oxfordshire County Council and Cherwell District Council following the restructuring of local government in Northamptonshire, and the successful joint working between all six of Oxfordshire’s councils with the Growth Board.

Mr Sunak said: “The evidence of the progress all Oxfordshire councils together are making on the Housing and Growth Deal clearly demonstrates that the absence of any announcement on the unitary proposal is no impediment to continued partnership working.”



2024 Levellers' Day

  Oxford & District Trades Union Council has booked a coach from Oxford to Burford for Levellers' Day on Saturday, 18 May 2024.   We...