Will Tanner

Norfolk prepares for the Spending Review

This is the latest in our series of posts on the Spending Review with Reform. A list of previous posts can be found here.

On Friday, Norfolk’s public service leaders gathered at a summit organised by Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk and Parliamentary and Political Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister, to discuss the region’s preparation for the upcoming Spending Review. The meeting of MPs, council leaders, NHS and police representatives, as well as a number of external organisations such as Reform, was intended as a first step towards a regional solution to the expected 25 per cent cuts to Norfolk’s annual £7 billion total public spend.
 
The immediacy of the Spending Review created a broad acceptance of the need to, as Norman Lamb put it, “think afresh about how the money might be spent”. As the assembled leaders were keen to point out, Norfolk’s public services are already reducing waste in such areas as administration, staff and procurement. The County Council has budgeted savings of over £100 million from its £560 million revenue budget by 2012, while South Norfolk Council and North Norfolk Council have already found savings of 5 and 10 percent respectively since 2007. Similarly, NHS Norfolk has outlined initial savings of £45 million from an overall budget of £1.2 billion. Some way to go. Such savings are reinforced by a number of promising partnerships in place between councils and other bodies to share the use of back office resources, IT, audit and legal services.
 
However, as was borne out in the discussion, efficiency savings alone will not be sufficient to counter expected 25 percent cuts, and a fundamental reassessment of service provision is necessary.



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