Surrey County Conservatives

Surrey Conservatives endorse a radical redesign of the County Council 4th January 2006

Surrey County Council’s Conservative run Executive yesterday endorsed a radical redesign of the council’s operating structure, and savings of £139m net over five years, as the much awaited findings of the Business Delivery Review are given the green light to be released for consultation on 5^th January.

The Conservative inspired BDR, which was launched back in September with the remit of finding up to £50m in savings from the Council’s budget without impacting upon front line services, proposed three options for the Executive to consider with option number three being unanimously endorsed at yesterday’s meeting.

This option will drastically alter the organisational structure of the council placing a greater emphasis on delivery and will result in overall net first year savings of £22.7m whilst actually increasing real investment in front line services such as the Adult Service by £4.7m.

The savings of £24.1m net will be achieved through a reduction in overall headcount of 661 employees and more efficient procurement and contract management systems, whilst still maintaining, and indeed enhancing, the current standard of service which gained the council a four star rating in the Audit Commission’s recent Comprehensive Performance Assessment.

Commenting Conservative Group Leader, Nick Skellett, said:

“I’m delighted that my colleagues on the Executive have unanimously voted for the third option of the three proposed by our consultants Robson Rhodes. This was the only sensible long-term option we as a council could justifiably take if we were to make the necessary savings required. The need for the council to make substantial savings cannot be overemphasised given the current funding plight and against a backdrop of a likely council tax rise of around 5% next year.

However, the BDR was never just about finding savings from this year’s budget. It was about ensuring that SCC remains at the cutting edge of service provision, and is able to provide significant long term investment into areas such as adult care package volumes through a radical redesign of our operational structure and we way we conduct our business.

This proposed new structure will ensure that the County Council remains an efficient organisation in order to keep future council tax rises to a minimum.”