Bridging the local government funding gap

Throughout this journey, we’ve involved staff in every step of the process, providing them with an opportunity to own and make recommendations such as the introduction of an income generation ideas log. This encourages staff to submit business ideas using a detailed business planning model, which enables the Council to understand whether the proposed project is commercially viable.

Encouraging staff to think in this new way has involved behavioural change, and encourages staff to build income generation into their day job. Capacity, upskilling and managing pinch points are supported through a virtual team of officers with skills in commercialism, marketing and sales. In addition, projects are also built into annual service planning, whilst digital transformation, agile working and system harmonisation is also being embraced.

As a Council, we regularly achieve high satisfaction rates from residents for good quality services and value for money with the most recent residents’ survey showing that 96% of residents would recommend South Staffordshire as a good place to live. Equally, the self-confidence of staff has increased, enabling them to be more innovative and propose income generation ideas. By upskilling our staff and changing the cultural mind-set, we’ve been able to put in place new business services through the Business Hub. These include fraud investigation and legal services, an energy switch scheme, renting out office accommodation in the Council offices as well as creating a new wedding venue for civil weddings and partnership ceremonies. We’ve also grown our property portfolio and set up a community lottery to ensure future funding for local good causes and community groups.

By investing in assets, developing staff potential and collaborating with commercial expertise, we are now in a position where income generation is very much at the heart of the Council’s thinking. The first Efficiency and Income Plan resulted in savings of over £1,300,000 and the Business Hub alone is achieving a profit of £286,000 a year, which is estimated to culminate in £1.43 million by 2020. The aim of the refreshed Efficiency and Income Plan is to move from a three-year balanced budget to a five-year balanced budget by 2020.

An important part of future plans is the proposed development of an integrated community hub with enhanced and more modern and efficient workspace at the Council’s offices in Codsall. The Council is part of a Staffordshire wide project that has been accepted onto the national One Public Estate programme and is set to be one of the largest schemes of work in the Council’s history. It will mean that partnership working is set to expand with more public and private sector organisations being based in the same building with reduced ongoing operating costs

At the heart of everything has been Member engagement and support. Early on, it was recognised that this programme of work would require an ‘invest to save’ budget. This has allowed us to achieve our goals so far and plan for a future despite uncertainty and central government funding cuts.

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