Chauffeurs sidelined as part of Lewisham drive to cut costs

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

Lewisham council will get rid of mayor Brenda Dacres’ driver as part of a £25 million package of savings to balance the budget next year.

The Labour-run council will claw back over £15,000 by deleting a vacant post for the role, which also involves transporting speaker councillor Jacq Paschoud to civic events.

The saving is one of a raft of measures the local authority intends to take to fill a £25 million budget black hole for 2025/26.

Other cuts outlined in documents presented to the council’s public accounts committee last week include a £300,000 cut to Lewisham’s youth services budget over two years and a £217,000 cut to the main grants programme, which funds the borough’s voluntary and community sector.

Scrapping funding for the council’s ward assemblies—which are used to consult residents— is expected to save Lewisham £203,000 in staffing costs, while reducing the council’s HR department’s spending is expected to free-up £170,000.

Despite a huge package of cost cutting and income generation measures, the council will have to draw on reserves to set a balanced budget next year (2025/26). Reserves will also need to be used to address a £27.4 million overspend this year (2024/25).

The council’s budget savings 2025/26 report adds: “It is highly likely that by the end of 2025/26 the council will have depleted its reserves balances by between £40m [million] to £50m in the two year period. This equates to 50 per cent of the unallocated and earmarked reserves as yet not committed.”

Like other inner London councils, such as Lambeth and Southwark, Lewisham’s finances are buckling under the ballooning cost of temporary accommodation, as well as children’s social care.

A comparison of 28 London boroughs’ budgets earlier this year showed that Lewisham had the third highest overspend in the first quarter of 2024/25.

The local authority’s overspend was equivalent to 7.8 per cent of the total budget, compared to an average of 2.7 per cent across other London councils.

The same benchmarking showed that Lewisham had the fifth largest overspend for housing services, which includes temporary accommodation.

Pictured top: Brenda Dacres (Picture: Lewisham Labour Group)