Surrey County Conservatives

Surrey Tories to hail BDR as a success 20th December 2005

Surrey Tories are expected to hail SCC’s Business Delivery Review a success following expectations that the review will propose significant savings when it is discussed by the Executive, and released into the public domain, on 3^rd January.

The BDR, whose remit 3 months ago was to find up to £50m in savings from next year’s council budget, is nearing completion and looks set to offer significant savings without impacting on the provision of front line services, and maintaining the Council’s status as a provider of good services.

The need for identifying savings comes at a critical time for the County Council following a disappointing provisional grant settlement from the Government, a settlement which looks set to leave Surrey as the worst funded shire county in England. The Conservative inspired BDR not only seeks to mitigate the funding crisis, but also proposes to fundamentally restructure the council to ensure it becomes a more efficient, fit for purpose, organisation.

Commenting Conservative Group Leader, Nick Skellett, said:

“Given our level of grant from Government for the next two years we were clearly right to instigate a business delivery review back in September, despite opposition from the Lib Dems. I can confirm that we have found significant savings through restructuring the organisation without impacting upon front line services. In fact, in many cases, such as adult care package volumes, the BDR will allow us to invest significant future sums into providing an enhanced service for more users.

The BDR was never just about finding savings, it was about ensuring that we have done everything possible to make the council a more efficient organisation in order to keep future council tax rises to a minimum.”