The leader of Reform-controlled Nottinghamshire County Council has promised to go into detail on a planned £44 million efficiency programme after it was criticised as being “built on sand”.
Shortly after winning the 2025 election to take control of the authority, leader Cllr Mick Barton, his cabinet, and the council’s officers began their own efficiency review to find cost savings amid continued budget pressures.
Reform’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – which looks at reducing government spending – was originally going to be tasked with helping the council and its staff identify savings.
It was planned that the US and Elon Musk-inspired savings department would be used in newly controlled Reform councils across the country, but so far, the department has only visited a select few authorities.
In the council’s budget for the upcoming financial year, which begins in April, and its broader financial plan for the next three years, Reform says £44.2 million in “efficiencies” have been identified to reduce pressures.
However, Cllr Barton has so far provided no further details on where these efficiencies will be made, except for the reduction of agency staff, resulting in savings of £1.6 million.
He promised more details would be provided soon, following criticism from the Conservative opposition group.
Cllr Sam Smith, opposition leader, said: “Reform were elected on a lot of empty promises. The first one was vote for us at Nottinghamshire County Council and we will stop the boats. There is no Home Office department here.
“Then they were elected to cut the costs of chief officers, because the chief executive here gets paid more than the Prime Minister, and they’ve done nothing at all about that. They were elected to cut and freeze council tax. They’ve increased it by 3.99 per cent.
“Then they were elected to save the council money, so they have come up with this £45m savings plan, which is completely built on sand.
“At the same time they have then put flags up on lampposts across Nottinghamshire that has cost taxpayers £75,000 – which should be going into repairing the roads that the flags are lining that are full of potholes.
“They cannot answer any questions. I have asked the leader over and over again can you bring forward a report that shows where you’ve saved money, but there is no report because they can’t do it.”
The authority recently announced it would raise council tax by 3.99 per cent, below the maximum allowed of 4.99 per cent, from April.
While it will increase, Cllr Barton said the planned efficiencies had allowed the authority to put it up by a lesser amount.
Cllr Smith said he has further concerns over just how feasible the efficiencies will be to deliver.
According to council budget documents, a 20 per cent contingency fund has been provided to manage risk across the next three years in relation to non-achievement of efficiencies.
“Should non-achievement be greater than 20 per cent, this contingency may be insufficient and future year budgets would be adversely impacted,” documents say.
Cllr Smith added: “That’s how much faith the legal financial officer of this council has in Reform’s savings plan.”
Cllr Barton said he could not reveal details on the efficiency review until they have been presented to his cabinet.
“A lot of councils have been given a lot of extra money from Government for the funding settlement, so we are just going to see where we are going to put that,” he said.
“We are going to publish more finer details next week, that we are still working on at the minute.”
