Broken Bradford: Optimism over Government help waning, leader says

It has also asked that it be allowed to use capitalisation - effectively selling buildings and land to pay for day-to-day spending, and believes it can raise £60 million by selling assets.

Nothing is off the cards, with council bosses going line-by-line through everything owned by the council to see what can be sold at what price.

This week, it unveiled swathing budget proposals for the next financial year, involving closing leisure centres and potentially libraries, cutting voluntary sector funding, hiking council tax and ending free parking for children’s social care workers.

While all councils are under severe financial strain due to increased demand and reduced income, in Bradford, the primary contributing factor has been children’s social care.

Not only has the number of children in need of care risen sharply - up by 61 per cent between 2012 to 2022, but the cost of providing placements for children has increased too, with residential placements going up from an average cost of £3,600 a week for each child in 2020-21 to an average of £6,000 per week last year.

This is in part due to councils being heavily reliant on the private sector for care placements, and those providers making record profits.

The LGA last year said the largest 20 independent providers of children’s social care made profits of more than £310 million - 19 per cent of their £1.63 billion income.

The leader of Bradford Council, Coun Susan Hinchcliffe, said any optimism that the Government would help the authority was waning.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Post, she said: “We've not had a reply from the Government on the funding yet but it's a while since we asked the question and therefore the longer time goes on the less optimistic I get that there's going to be a positive response. But we keep trying for that.

“If you look at every statement the Government has issued it says ’we encourage councils to talk to us if they're facing financial challenges’ so there are a lot of councils across the country having similar conversations to what we are, about not being able to set a budget for next year and having financial challenges.”

Speaking about the difficulty of making the cuts proposed in the budget, she said: “No councillor comes into politics to do this. I'm Bradford born and bred, my family have been here for generations and I want to see this place succeed as do all councillors in Bradford District.

“We have to be able to get through this difficult period and still deliver on the ambition and the potential that I know Bradford offers the country and I just really wish that the government would say that too.

“I wish that they would say we want Bradford to su cceed because it's really important to me that they see our potential and that they say they believe in us.”

In terms of when a section 114 n otice could be issued, should Government support not materialise, she said no decision deadlines had be en set, but a budget had to be set by next month.

While they wait for a Government decision, the council’s executive board will meet on Thursday morning to approve a consultation on the cuts proposed.