Bringing the public onside

The public must get used to very different councils over the next four years – as spending cuts make their impact – Reading BC chief executive, Michael Coughlin, tells Michael Burton. With plans to cut almost £40m over the next four years from his council's £125m net budget, Michael Coughlin believes such savings cannot be achieved without the active help of residents. They both need to take on Big Society responsibilities and to accept that certain services will simply no longer be available. The council anticipates having to trim its £125m net budget by £11m next year, £15m the year after, and £12m in 2013/14, which Michael describes as ‘significant'. He says: ‘I'm not sure many people have got their heads around that level of reduction. In five years, we'll be a significantly-different council from the one we are now. ‘If resources are reduced by 40% over three to four years, then councils will have to focus on those most in need. For the rest, there will be a support mechanism. Councils will have to do more capacity building, with a bigger role for the voluntary sector.' He believes the pace of change this year alone has already been substantial. ‘The main challenges are the extent of the change and the uncertainty,' he says. ‘If the pace of change since the election is maintained, then changes will be transformational. We've never taken 40% out of our budget. ‘We'll see radical and transformational change the like of which we've not seen before. We're beyond salami-slicing. Over the next four years, the public will have to get used to a different council. We can't take 40% out of the budget and not affect frontline services.' He believes the council will have to prioritise the services it needs to keep. Such priorities will include caring for the vulnerable and needy, maintaining highways and streetlighting, regulatory services and ‘supporting communities to help themselves'. The two main drivers behind place-based budgeting will be financial and Big Society. Of the former, he says: ‘We will have to be as efficient as possible, with place-based budgeting working actively with health and the police. ‘But, we can save more if the community can do more for itself. We're supporting the health improvement programme, neighbourhood planning and "thinking families".' Michael grew up in Crawley, Sussex, and gained a degree in economics and social administration at Portsmouth. He started his career in his home town as a trainee recreation officer at Crawley leisure centre. Later, he worked at Bexley LBC as swimming and recreation centres manager, followed by Elmbridge BC, where he was recreational resources manager, then leisure and amenity services. He joined Windsor RBC when it became unitary in September 1997 following the abolition of Berkshire CC – as director of leisure and cultural services, bringing together library services and leisure. He was later offered the post of director of planning and environment. In 2002, he returned to his home town as chief executive of Crawley BC, where he remained for six years. He recalls: ‘There were councillors still there whom I had known when I started as a trainee leisure manager. I really was "the returning officer".' He joined Reading BC in 2008, appointed by a Labour council in April, which then became a minority Labour administration, and now a Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition, with the leader being Conservative and the deputy a Liberal Democrat. The Reading coalition agreed to work together after May, following the national coalition. The town, while generally prosperous and with low unemployment, also has areas of major deprivation. Cuts have been made already this year of £1.6m, because of reductions in area-based grants, mainly in education. A total of 29 jobs have gone, half of them redeployed out of a total non-teaching workforce of 2,800. He adds: ‘Our performance improvement programme (PIP) is under way, with a target of finding an extra £931,000 this year, mainly in back-office support services. ‘We know how we will reshape the programme and know those areas where we will have to lose people. They can take redundancy or early retirement or reduce hours.' The PIP affects some 170 staff overall. The council is also reviewing its children and young people's service, while seeking to minimise redundancies, as well as looking at adult care. But, as he reminds us, even with the spending reductions, ‘60% of £125m is still a big sum. There is a danger we focus just on cuts when our responsibility is to make the best use of the funding we have.'

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WHITEHALL

Bringing the public onside

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