First phase of £90m Edinburgh cuts plan in detail

Further details of how the City of Edinburgh Council plans to save £90 million over three years were revealed yesterday.

The city’s Director of Finance Donald McGougan said his three stage plan was “not painless” but insisted he wanted to try to reduce the need for compulsory redundancies wherever possible.

The first phase of the cutbacks total £16 million, a sum Mr McGougan described as “modest” in the context of the full cuts plan.

Directors from all six key council departments were on hand at yesterday’s Policy and Strategy Committee to explain how they would weather the financial storm.

We have published the details of the first phase of cuts below and will follow this later today with comments from those involved.

The proposed cash savings below will be debated by councillors on 16 September before a public engagement process and a final budget in February.

The department with the biggest amount to save is Health and Social Care, which must cut back on £5,471,000. No service withdrawals are planned, meaning £420,000 of the management bill and £5,051,000 of back office costs have been proposed to be slashed instead.

The Children and Families department has been tasked with saving £2,360,000. The sum would be made up of £1,123,000 worth of management de-layering and £1,237,000 from back office elements. Again, no frontline service withdrawls are on the cards.

City Development bosses, who deal with planning, properties and road design, are proposing to save £1,183,000 by cutting £205,000 from management, £466,000 from back office and a £374,000 service reduction. There is also a proposal to save £138,000 by completely withdrawing the public safety for events element of their service and the ongoing Design Initiative, which supported part of the Waterfront project.

Corporate Services, a department dealing largely with internal HR, is proposing to make up £2,002,000 of savings. Cuts to be considered include £672,000 from the management budget, £872,000 from back office and £458,000 by way of service reduction.

The council’s Finance department, which deals with benefits and parking fines, outlined its plans to cut £1,827,000. The cutbacks will see £423,000 slashed from management and £1,404,000 from back office costs. Documents show £268,000 of the savings are non-staff costs.

The wide-ranging Services for Communities department, which deals with rubbish collection, homes and parks, is planning a £3,261,000 budget cut. Service reductions worth £836,000 include the scaling back of housing support and duplication within the roads service. The major savings would see £1,725,000 taken from the management budget and £700,000 from back office aspects.