Hyndburn Borough Council recognises and accepts that it is the responsibility of everyone involved in the public sector to contribute to reducing the budget deficit.

Having been rated by the Audit Commission as an Excellent Council under the former CPA/CAA inspection regime, the Council has clear evidence of a strong track record in managing its resources effectively, working with partners and delivering services to our council tax payers.

That was then, and this is now. As we look to the future we have a clear view of the task in front of us. Our key priorities over the next few years are to stimulate economic growth and the delivery of new and improved housing in the area. We know too, however, that while we are addressing these challenges the Council itself will need to undergo radical change in order to meet spending reduction targets and become more self-reliant and sustainable.

Although there is more to do, this transformation is already well underway. In the period 2009 to 2012, the total net expenditure of this Council reduced from £15.53m to £12.34m a reduction of 20.5%. In the same period the Council’s capital programme reduced from £12.06m to £6.42m – a reduction of 46.8%. The central proposition of our business case is that we will continue to transform our approach to service delivery and ensure that we reduce our spending to a sustainable level in line with our Medium Term Financial Strategy forecasts.

From the outset our approach to this has been practical and business like. The message that we have consistently conveyed to our staff and residents is that we need to play our part in reducing the deficit and that we will do so on a ‘no drama, no crisis’ basis. In the period 2010-2012 the workforce of the authority has been cut by 20.4% (the 42nd highest reduction in England and Wales out of 201 districts). We also continue to operate a variety of measures to drive down non-productive costs.

The overall level of council debt has been reduced from £51 million in 2002/3 to £11.5 million in 2011/12; Staff absence rates at the Council are amongst the lowest in the Country standing at 5.8 days per employee in 2011/12 down from 14.3 days per employee in 2002/3; and we have exercised tight financial management to drive down pension strain costs from an annual cost to the authority of £430K in 2004.