Milton Keynes Council faces its toughest budget in a generation, but Labour councillors are fighting hard to deliver an ambitious agenda for the city.

Milton Keynes council is being forced to make £22 million of savings in the year ahead as the authority deals with its toughest ever budget from Westminster. The new Labour council have had to face tough choices but are making the best of a bad situation to help look after the borough.

Despite the cuts and savings, we’re still delivering an ambitious programme and real benefits for the citizens of Milton Keynes.

• Labour are bringing forward plans to build 100 new council houses
• We are developing plans to deliver up to 2000 extra parking spaces in CMK
• Labour will freeze Council Tax as it is not right to charge hardworking families more as they struggle to make ends meet
• Establishing a review to look at how to protect and transform library services and children’s centres to protect them from future government cuts.

This is the toughest budget ever for Milton Keynes Council, MKC having already delivered over £65m in savings since 2011. That means we have to make tough choices on what we prioritise and what services we need to continue to deliver and where we make savings.

Milton Keynes Council is facing a budget cut of 40%. Since 2011 we’ve had to cut our spending by £68m.  By 2020, we will have to find further savings of over £70m and we expect funding reductions to continue.

This is the equivalent of saving £1,295 per household and while our funding is being cut, the demand for our services is increasing.  The cost of adult & children’s services cost going up: in 2015/16 – £4.74m, 2015/16 to 2019/20 – £10m

Leader of the Council, Cllr Pete Marland, said: “As council funding reduces we fundamentally have to rethink how services in the community are being delivered. Milton Keynes Council will need to do less, and we need to help communities to do more by working together.

“As a cooperative council we have an opportunity to work with local people to reshape services for the benefit of those who use them. 

“This is not about closing services; we know how important they are. However the review may identify areas that are no longer sustainable. 

“In other areas we may need to remodel the way we do things. A cooperative council gives the community the power to decide what is most important to them, and we hope that local residents, groups and organisations will join us in thinking differently to achieve this together.”

You can watch a short video on the choices facing Milton Keynes Council by clicking here.