‘Clarity and honesty’ needed as Reform UK turns to redundancies to meet savings target

This week's newsletter is looking for efficiencies at Lancashire County Council

Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.

It’s budget time, which means that this coming Thursday there will be a vote at full council to determine whether Reform UK’s 26/27 budget plan can be implemented. Given the size of their majority, that part is basically a foregone conclusion.

The big questions in relation to that budget will be around the 3.8% increase in council tax - either a borderline betrayal or a miracle depending on who you ask - in the context of the need for both significant savings and investment into frontline services.

But there are redundancies planned too - concerning for anyone employed by the authority - and there are now calls for transparency in terms of who will be affected by that. It has not yet been forthcoming.

Lancashire briefing

🏠 A public hearing into plans for a controversial housing development in Leyland has been scrapped. A planning inspector had been due to chair an appeal against South Ribble Borough Council’s decision to refuse permission for a 23-home estate off Cocker Lane in Moss Side. However, the one-day event, scheduled for 10th March, has now been cancelled – and the inspector will base his decision on written submissions, rather than hearing from the interested parties in person. It is understood that the official will still visit the location before reaching a decision.

❌ Plans to use a former Burnley church and upholstery factory at the centre of a bitter dispute last year over false rumours it would be used to house migrants as student flats has been refused by councillors. In August, the borough’s Labour MP Oliver Ryan and Reform UK’s Burnley Central West Lancashire County Councillor Liam Thomson became locked in a fierce social media row over the possible use of the premises at the corner of Claremont Street and Tabor Street for housing asylum seekers. It followed a small fire in the yard of the building originally home to the 19th-century Claremont Street United Free Methodist Church, which was then occupied by Wrights Upholstery. Now this month’s meeting of Burnley Council’s development control committee has rejected Khalid Mahmood’s proposal to convert the property into 24 studio flats for students.

🗳️ Hyndburn Council is to freeze its council tax for the coming financial year from April 1. The authority’s ruling cabinet voted to take the step and drop its original plan to increase it by 2.99 per cent for 2026/27. It will use a government grant following the ministerial U-turn on plans to cancel this year’s local elections in the borough and 29 other areas. The decision has drawn criticism from opposition politicians who say it was taken because elections are now set to go ahead.

‘Clarity and honesty’ needed as Reform UK turns to redundancies to meet savings target

County Hall in Lancashire. Credit: The Lancashire Lead

By Luke Beardsworth

A set of redundancies are expected over the next three years as part of Reform UK’s plans to cut costs at Lancashire County Council.

Papers seen by The Lancashire Lead ahead of Thursday’s (26 February) full council budget meeting set out an £11m provision for redundancy costs associated with a ‘minority’ of £62m in budget savings proposed by the authority.

County Hall said that they will seek to minimise impact on staff through measures such as natural turnover, redevelopment and vacancy management where possible.

No decisions have been taken at this stage in terms of where the redundancies will fall, but the budget notes that there will be a focus on reducing ‘management layers’. It adds that digital tools, automation and AI will be a part of that, too.

But a key union representing staff at Lancashire County Council has told us there is a need for clarity for employees already under pressure to maintain ‘essential services’.

James Rupa, regional organiser at UNISON, told The Lancashire Lead: “Job losses will be a huge worry for staff and the whole community.