Hampshire County Council plans to cut 350 jobs to address a £182.2m budget shortfall for 2025/26, impacting various services.
Hampshire: The council is facing a big budget shortfall of £182.2 million for 2025/26. To tackle this, they are making cuts and looking for savings.
Last November, the budget gap was £116.2 million. The council managed to reduce it to £97.6 million with their first savings plan.
In November, they also approved a scheme allowing staff to leave voluntarily for a payment. This is called the Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme (MARS).
So far, 354 MARS applications were accepted. Most of these have been processed, saving the council £4.5 million.
This amount is £5.7 million less than if they had to make people redundant. Savings come from various departments, including children’s services and adult health care.
Councillors are concerned about how these job cuts will affect services and remaining staff. They worry about increased workloads and staff leaving.
Mr. Blogg assured them that they carefully considered each application. They only accepted those that wouldn’t harm critical roles.
Mr. Ashley mentioned that 86 applications were approved in his department, but they received over 220. Not all will be accepted.
He emphasized that if a position is essential, that person won’t be leaving soon. They are confident that the cuts won’t harm their ability to safeguard children.
The MARS scheme is part of a larger savings plan that has generated £29.4 million so far. However, the budget still has a £68.2 million deficit.
To balance the budget, chief officers have proposed two options. The first option includes a 15% council tax rise, needing government approval.
If that doesn’t happen, the second option is a 5% tax rise, which doesn’t need permission. This would use £68.2 million from reserves to balance the budget.
The cabinet will discuss these recommendations on Tuesday, February 4.
