We are thrilled to be in a position where we could be seriously investing back into our city...it's wonderful we are not proposing redundancies

COUNCIL RELYING ON MORE CASH FROM FAIR FUNDING REFORMS

- By ZENA HAWLEY

DESPITE a challenging financial landscape for councils nationally, Labour-led Derby City Council is optimistic that it will be able to protect essential services and invest in the region of £26 million into the city in the next financial year 2026/27.

The reason for optimism is because the city council is hoping to get a better financial deal than usual from the Government, due to be announced next week, under its “fair funding” reforms.

As a result, the savings that the council needs to find to bridge the current £7.756 million budget gap, are likely to be found through “spending controls” and “careful financial management”, together with more £1 million savings through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in more areas, and are not such a concern as they might have been if the council receives extra cash.

A total of 211 uses of AI were found during an audit of the council and so far it has only been applied to about 50 projects, so it thinks that more AI could be introduced.