A ‘strategic director for strategy, change and communities’ will manage £40million of cuts and a £19m government bailout, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter
Waltham Forest Council will appoint a new ‘strategic director for strategy, change and communities’ to oversee £40million of cuts and manage a government bailout.
It will be their job to oversee savings across council services over the next three years in a bid to resolve financial turmoil.
They will also manage the £19m government bailout, signed off by councillors last month amid “significant” financial pressures, and work to introduce a “prevention-led” model of governance.
Going forward, council leader Grace Williams has committed to “regular updates” on how the ‘extraordinary financial support’ (EFS) is being spent.
She told top officials at a cabinet meeting this week it was “vital” to have “the right people in place,” and that would require a new position being created.
The terms of EFS loans require councils to produce a “credible plan” for both financial recovery and transformation, which Cllr Williams says “needs to be coherent”.
Waltham Forest says it will also improve its capacity to “deliver complex change at pace” and take a “preventative” approach that reduces long-term demand.
Finance officials previously said they would only use it if it was “absolutely necessary”. Once a council draws EFS, it becomes an active loan with interest.
Last month, Cllr Williams claimed the loan would “help us protect our services that matter most to people” while “balancing the budget in the short term”.
She said it would keep around £30m in the council’s reserves and remove the need for further borrowing.
Although Waltham Forest is not the only authority to rely on EFS – with Havering voting this month to apply for its third bailout in as many years – opposition councillors criticised the move.
The Conservative group, who form the official opposition in the council chamber, accused the authority of relying on the “tax-payers’ credit card”.
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