Ipswich Borough Council announces proposed savings and measures to offset impact of inflation

A series of savings and other measures have been reccommended by the executive of Ipswich Borough Council to offset the impact of inflation.

The recommendations include an increase in council tax on empty homes, an end to the production of The Angle newspaper and removal of face-to-face customer service from the town hall.

The proposal to recommend the savings to council was approved unanimously by the executive, meaning full council will decide whether to implement them on July 27.

If introduced, this will add further savings to the four-year financial plan agreed in February.

Labour councillor Martin Cook said: “We need to take action now because inflationary pressure is happening now.

“Since we agreed the medium-term financial plan in February, the government’s inflation forecasts have more than doubled. It’s now anticipated that there could be 9.1% inflation over the year, according to the ONS.

“That means we now have a predicted extra cost of £6.4 million. When added to the gap expected in February, this leaves a total budget gap of £23 million.

“This is not something we can just leave until the next budget cycle in February because we will have missed the opportunity to take action at the right time if we do that.”

“We have not made any proposals that will hit Ipswich people in the pocket.

“We are keeping things like the free brown bin scheme and the young person’s Summer Holiday icard, which I think is one of the most generous and loved such initiatives in the country.”

The Summer Holiday iCard was introduced in 2018, and provides free activities during the summer holidays for children aged 5 to 16 who live or go to school in Ipswich.

These include free access to racquet sports during the daytime; free access to some gyms at specific times; and free access to a junior activities programme including dodgeball, roller skating, basketball and tennis. There are also day-long summer camps and disability sports camps.

The recommended saving methods include:

Increasing council tax on empty homes

Ceasing production of The Angle newspaper, which is published by the Borough Council

Moving face-to-face customer services provision from the town hall and letting the customer service space commercially

Replacing community cash grants (annual grants for organisations supporting the community) with three-year awards

Returning the management of Northgate Sports Centre to Suffolk County Council

Selling land and development sites

Ending maintenance of highway verges on behalf of the Suffolk County Council, who has responsibility over this.

No decision has been made on where customer service provision in the town hall would be moved to, but Councillor Cook said: “Customers would be uppermost in our thoughts and an announcement on the arrangements would be made in due course.”

Conservative councillor Ian Fisher was “pleased” with the proposal, but questioned why the decision to make it was left until now when, he suggested, savings have been needed for a number of years.