We’re hearing that the cuts after the Comprehensive Spending Review could lead to up to 2,000 job losses over four years, as the council is required to save £50 million next year and £110 million over the following three years. And all that after making savings of £85 million over the last four years…
What does this mean for the city’s development, David? Can a city the size of Newcastle grow, renew and progress as well as manage and maintain on this level of resourcing?
Like everybody else, we are waiting for the results of the Comprehensive Spending Review. It has been a time when there has been uncertainty over public funding, and as news has emerged, it has been of reductions rather than maintaining what we have.
Nevertheless Newcastle has maintained momentum. We have secured great support from HCA for Scotswood since the election, and we are now on site, spending nearly £20m de-risking the area for 1800 new homes.
Our private sector partners, BarrattKeepmoatYuill, are progressing well in negotiations with us, and local residents have been positive about (at last) some real signs of progress. We have also secured increasing support for the community based proposals for the Byker Housing Trust. We hope we will get a formal agreement for this in the next few weeks.
Lastly, new funding through the Tax Incremental Financing route has been announced with Newcastle Science Central specifically mentioned as one of the potential first pilots. So, finishing what we started, and showing new ways of raising finance are important. But even more important is reputation: and being the greenest city in Britain for the second year running, courtesy of the Forum for the Future ranking this week, is beyond all price. Not everything is dependant on public funding!
