Nottingham City Council's leader says any further savings at the authority would be "cutting into the bone" as he tries to avoid Government commissioners being sent in to run it. Following the collapse of Robin Hood Energy and the misspending of £40 million, the Government has been monitoring improvements that Nottingham City Council is making to its finances and organisation.
Following the latest report being made back to the Government on the council's progress, a decision is due by the end of January on whether commissioners need to be sent in to run the council at a cost to taxpayers. David Mellen, who has led the Labour council since 2019, has told councillors that he is confident about the progress made.
But speaking to Nottinghamshire Live, Councillor Mellen says that the added problem of inflation has made finding efficiencies even harder. Referring to the rising cost of energy in particular, he said: "It's difficult and there's no easy options for not heating places that we should be heating.
"We're obviously trying to be as energy efficient as we possibly can be. When we moved [to Loxley House] just over a decade ago, one of the thoughts was that we would have less old, expensive to manage buildings and have ones like this which were more efficient.
"But it feels like we've been trying to find efficiencies for 12 years, so it's very difficult to find anything that isn't cutting into the bone. That being said, our transformation programme is looking to do things in a different way, so not slicing the budget or taking short-term cuts, but trying to go for a long-term, more sustainable financial position.
"The pay increase for our staff is well deserved and I don't think anybody would suggest that they don't deserve that pay increase. It's difficult and we will have to find further savings whilst trying to be careful."
Nottingham City Council avoided Government commissioners being sent in during the summer, when Michael Gove said that he was "minded to" make the decision. His successor Greg Clark decided against commissioner intervention and instead gave more powers to the Improvement and Assurance Board (IAB), which has been monitoring progress.
The final 2022 meeting of the IAB took place in November and Councillor Mellen told a council meeting that it was a "strange" discussion given that no indication was given as to whether the council had made enough progress. Councillor Mellen also told fellow council colleagues about his hope that the authority would not be left "dangling without any certainty" for long.
When asked whether such uncertainty made it harder to plan for the future, Councillor Mellen said: "Yes it does. We will still carry on, we have our plans and we've got elections coming up in May. Those things carry on whether there are further people here overseeing us or not.
"I have concerns and I've had concerns all the way through this improvement journey. All I can do is give the political lead to make our council financially secure, to improve our practices and to serve the people of Nottingham in the best way we can."
Despite the council's several challenges and the possibility remaining that Government commissioners will be sent in, David Mellen did say that he still had optimism for the future of Nottingham and for 2023. In particular, one of the projects he highlighted was work to create a "Green Heart" in Nottingham as part of work to regenerate the Broad Marsh area.
Councillor Mellen said: "We're making gradual progress and the work we're going to do on the green heart in particular is going to be exciting. We are not just responsible for balancing the city council's budget, we're responsible for the economy of the city.
"Clearly having a shopping centre that's partially demolished is not helping the local economy. For the future, I think there is a lot to be positive about."
