Westminster targets £4m savings from legal and other "back office" functions

Westminster Council plans to make £4m in savings from back office functions of its legal, communications, policy and performance departments after its budget for 2011/12 was approved this week.

It was not clear as Local Government Lawyer went to press what proportion of the savings will come from the legal services team – which employs 25 lawyers, five legal assistants and nine support staff – nor how they will be achieved.

Westminster's current legal spend is £4.8m, which includes internal and external spend and its outlay on counsel.

The local authority’s budget – signed off by its Cabinet – will also deliver a number of other efficiencies including:

• £15m savings through the reduction of up to 450 staff posts over two years, “many from middle and senior management”
• £4m in savings by consolidating premises and the sale or lease of properties that are under used by the council
• £2m from its commissioning services department
• £2m through the implementation of ‘multi agency customer hubs’ providing a wider range of council services under one roof
• £1.2m by streamlining and sharing finance services with other boroughs.

The council revealed plans to develop new services using social enterprises and trade with other parts of the public sector. “This will include ensuring planning or licensing services are self-funding and looking to generate income through trading activities and sponsorship where appropriate,” it added.

Westminster insisted that no children’s centres or leisure centres would close and key services would be protected. It also claimed it would “maintain its library service, meals on wheels and public toilets with spending focused on clean streets, care for the most vulnerable and low council tax”.

The budget, which predicts a revenue spend of £236m (down from £266m), is due to be ratified by a full council meeting on 2 March.

It has been set as part of an attempt to make £60m in savings over the next two years. The recent local government finance settlement imposed £23.4m in general funding reductions and approximately £2m specific grant losses.

Cllr Colin Barrow, Leader of Westminster, said: “These are tough times. Inevitably the need to reduce the national budget deficit means that there will be service reductions, but we have worked hard to ensure around 80% of our budget proposals hit the back office, not the frontline.

“The result is that there won’t be a single children’s centre closure in Westminster, there won’t be the end of the Big Society policies or the closure of leisure centres as planned by other councils. And we’ll largely maintain our library service and our public toilets.”

Cllr Barrow added: “No-one wants to cut jobs and scale back services but previous levels of spending were unsustainable. There will be further reductions and there may be increased charges, but these will be at the minimum level necessary to maintain our services.”

Earlier this month Local Government Lawyer revealed how Westminster was considering combining its legal services team with Hammersmith & Fulham Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea as part of a package of radical tri-borough proposals to combine back office and management services. The three councils expect to save £35m a year through the overall scheme.

However, if such a move went ahead, it is likely that H&F and RBKC would merge their legal terms first.

Philip Hoult