Richmond Council has drawn up plans to save £39 million a year by 2029 as it braces for a devastating cut to its central government funding.
The south-west London borough faces losing £29 million a year in core grant support by 2029 under proposed changes to the way Whitehall distributes money to councils — a 58 per cent reduction described as the largest percentage cut in London.
In response, the council has published detailed transformation business cases covering six major service areas, setting out how it intends to find £39 million in recurring annual savings through restructuring, digitisation and commercialisation.
The six areas in the firing line are Adult Social Care and Public Health, Children’s Services, Housing, Corporate Functions, Environment, and Growth and Place.
A central plank of the plan is a “digital front door” — a single online portal that would consolidate resident enquiries, automate routine administration and use artificial intelligence to triage requests. Predictive analytics would also be deployed to spot early signs of vulnerability, so support can be offered before cases escalate into crises.
Council leader Cllr Gareth Roberts has accused the government of punishing the borough for running its finances efficiently. “We haven’t shied away from increasing council tax. We have done everything we can to run an efficient council and protect residents’ money. And now we are being punished for doing exactly that,” he said.
He added: “By stripping Richmond of nearly 60% of its core funding – the biggest percentage cut in London – the government risks financially destabilising this council and putting even greater pressure on the services residents rely on.”
The figures are backed by the council’s own official announcement, published on 25 September, which confirms the authority is “fast-tracking £39 million of savings” through an ambitious transformation programme.
The same announcement warns that reserves of £52 million at the start of 2026/27 could fall to £28 million by the end of the financial year — and could run out entirely within four years. Even with the maximum permitted council tax rise, the council projects a funding gap of £19.3 million in 2027/28, rising to £30.8 million by 2030/31.
Adult social care reforms will focus on prevention — restructuring staffing, expanding early help and occupational therapy, rolling out care technology and an AI-powered self-service platform, and redesigning procurement to secure better deals from providers.
Children’s services will shift towards early intervention: overhauling referrals and triage, making greater use of family group decision-making and kinship care to reduce reliance on costly residential placements, and starting family reunification work far earlier.
On housing, the council wants to cut its exposure to soaring temporary accommodation costs — shortening the time households spend in relief duty beyond the 56-day statutory target, reducing the length of stays in temporary accommodation, and driving down nightly rates through tougher procurement.
Corporate functions face a hub-and-spoke reorganisation to cut duplication, while surplus property could be sold or leased and buildings retrofitted to reduce running costs. The environment department will look to raise revenue through traffic enforcement, revised fees and commercial events in parks, with street cleaning, waste, libraries and leisure contracts all up for redesign. Growth and Place will move discretionary fees towards full cost recovery.
Richmond is not accepting the funding formula quietly. It is challenging the changes alongside the London boroughs of Wandsworth, Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, calling for a rethink of the allocations, a longer transition period and powers to retain more locally raised income — a fight echoed by other boroughs, with Westminster warning of its own looming financial crisis and London councils demanding a fair share of new revenue powers.
Residents are being urged to back a formal proposal under the Sustainable Communities Act asking the government to reconsider. Deputy leader Cllr Jim Millard said: “Without a fairer funding deal, services for residents will suffer.”
The backdrop is the government’s Fair Funding Review — a redistribution of grant money from historically better-off areas towards places with higher deprivation. Richmond argues the formula ignores London’s higher costs, inflation in care provision and population growth. The borough’s leadership has been vocal on funding pressures before, with the council leader previously calling tourist tax plans ‘another kick in the teeth’.
For residents, the coming years will mean dealing with a leaner, more digital council — self-service portals and AI triage for everyday requests, tighter thresholds for care placements, and new charges for parks and discretionary services. Those with limited digital access may find the transition hardest.
The council insists the overhaul is designed to protect statutory services while the funding floor falls away — but with £39 million to find and reserves draining, the choices ahead will be stark.
