STRONG financial discipline, delivering savings but also reinvesting in new ways of working for the people of Hampshire will be crucial in addressing what the county council expects to be its greatest financial challenge yet.

That is the message from Hampshire County Council leader Roy Perry as he sets out the authority’s budget strategy toward 2020.

As a result of massive, recurring funding cuts, by April next year the county council will have delivered more than £340m of savings over the last eight years. This represents an overall reduction in its budget of almost two thirds (63 per cent) during that period.

But Mr Perry stressed: “I am proud that we have achieved these savings with minimum disruption to our most important services which remain among the best in the country. I am determined to protect them.”

The county council’s “successful” financial planning strategy – developed since the start of the national austerity measures – has enabled the protection of core quality services while at the same time allowed for significant investment in the county’s infrastructure, such as providing school places for every Hampshire child, and repairing and enhancing the county’s roads to boost the local economy.

Following a meeting of the county council cabinet Mr Perry said: “The county council spends around £1.9billion on serving Hampshire’s 1.3 million residents, a responsibility we take very seriously, and one that requires meticulous management of taxpayers’ money, and diligent planning for the future.

“We were put to the test at the end of last year when the Government suddenly changed how it funds local authorities, and this meant we had to close an additional £81.5m funding gap in our budget for 2016/17.

“To offset this shortfall we were forced to increase council tax for the first time in six years (still at the lowest level of all county councils), and use up the majority of our reserves.

“With even deeper cuts to public spending expected in future, the challenge of finding further savings is going to be really tough, and much harder than we have ever experienced before.”

On top of the cumulative annual savings of £340m the county council is set to deliver by next April, the authority will need to find a further £120m of savings by April 2019.

“We know that our financial strategy to date has served Hampshire well,” said Mr Perry. “Planning ahead, securing savings in advance, reinvesting in new and more efficient ways of working and making careful use of reserves to meet gaps in funding is likely to remain our approach in the medium term, and it’s an approach which we know residents support.

“We will also continue to invest in Hampshire’s infrastructure to support economic growth across the county – spending another £10m per year for four years from 2017/18 to strengthen Hampshire’s road network and make our highways more resilient to the effects of extreme weather and heavy traffic.

“However, given that our efficiency programme to 2020 will increase the cumulative annual total of savings to £460million, against a backdrop of increased demand for vital services, we will have to give some serious thought to what we can do differently in the future.

“Clearly we are not going to be able to deliver services at the same level without making some changes. We will, of course, consult with residents, as their views are fundamental in helping to shape future plans.

“We are constantly trying to develop new and more efficient ways of working.

“Activities such as expanding the use of volunteers, sharing services with some partners, selling services to others, maximising new technology, and finding ways of generating more income to help mitigate the impact on services have already made a big impact, and will continue to do so.”