New West Northamptonshire unitary council ‘confident’ it will meet its £85 million savings target

Set to launch in April next year, the unitary is currently running as a ‘shadow council’ in preparation for vesting day. Current councillors and staff members of the existing district and county councils are filling positions until elections are due to be held next year.

Back in January, it was revealed that the new unitary – which will effectively replace the councils in Northampton, Daventry and South Northamptonshire – would result in savings of £85 million.

And at a recent shadow overview and scrutiny meeting, Councillor Ken Pritchard asked whether the unitary was confident it would still make those savings by the time it launched.

Council officer Audra Statham replied: “When you look at it in isolation, £85 million is an enormous amount. But I wanted to draw your attention to the fact that £35 million of that is already in the bag. We’re almost halfway through this year and certainly the projections are for a further £14 million. We have every confidence in delivering those. And the further we get through more of these complex projects, then the more confident we are. So going forward, the confidence levels are very high at the moment.”

Of the £35 million savings so far, the vast majority – almost £23 million – have come from adults services, with a further £4 million from children’s services. No further itemised breakdown of how the savings have been made within those services has been made public yet.

Ms Statham also indicated though that some of the savings would come at a later date past vesting day, and would ‘take time to embed’.

Paul Helsby, the transformation programme manager for Future Northants, added: “Whilst we’re not complacent, what we’re creating are the ingredients to be able to deliver those savings.

“We’re in the process of recruiting a transformation director to work with the senior management team. That person will have a team to support services to deliver that transformation and improvements for residents.

“The by-product of improved services is getting it right first time is cheaper and saves money. If their track record is anything to go by, we will have delivered £50 million of that £80 million by vesting day.”