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21
Jun 2022
North Yorkshire County Council's finance boss has said the new unitary local authority is facing a possible black hole of close to £50 million a year.
Cllr Gareth Dadd, executive member for finance at the county council, said the situation was largely due to deficits it will inherit from district councils and high inflation.
Cllr Dadd said it was far too early for the authority, which will come into existence on April 1 next year, to be considering service cutbacks.
Due to the range of uncertainties facing the authority including the ongoing impact of covid, he likened setting the council’s budgets to “trying to juggle two bowls of jelly”.
He was speaking at a meeting of the Conservative-led authority’s executive where a move to top up a fund to cover the costs of local government reorganisation to £38 million was approved.
Although he did not estimate the total structural deficits that the seven second tier authorities, including Harrogate Borough Council, would have accumulated by the time the new council is launched in April, he said it was believed it would be “substantial”.
Cllr Dadd said while the authority had been successful in cutting costs during austerity, it would never be complacent about sound financial management.
The meeting heard the county council’s business case for local government reorganisation had provided for a £252 million saving over a five-year period after £38 million in costs were taken off.
Cllr Dadd said he would be astounded if all of the £38 million was needed for the reorganisation.
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