THERE’S a new man in charge at Lancashire County Council with a big task ahead: finding tens of millions of pounds of savings. We met the new man at the helm.

PHIL Halsall has just scooped one of the North West’s biggest - and best rewarded - jobs in the public sector but he is not in an enviable position.

As the new chief executive of Lancashire County Council, he takes the helm at a time when £128million needs to be saved over two years from the authority’s budget.

As he admits, stepping up from finance chief to take over from the outgoing Ged Fitzgerald in February will not be easy.

“We’ve got a rule. Anything easy Ged deals with and anything difficult I get,” he jokes as we sit down in his office.

Mr Halsall landed at County Hall as executive director of resources in 2009, and when Mr Fitzgerald announced he was heading to Liverpool Council in November, he was promoted internally.

The vacant top job may not have been advertised but there is a feeling that councillors made a horses-for-courses appointment with Mr Halsall.

In 30 years in local government, the 52-year-old has always worked in finance, at several North West councils and at accountancy giant PricewaterhouseCoopers.

He will need all that experience when he begins tackling balance sheets and the budget crisis once he’s moved into Mr Fitzgerald’s larger office across County Hall.

Despite that, Mr Halsall claims to see it an upside of it - a smaller, more streamlined authority, a view shared by Lancashire County Council’s Conservative leader, Geoff Driver.

“It is the most challenging time for councils because of the financial pressures but with that comes opportunities,” says Mr Halsall.

“The Government told us how much we will get for the next two years and we have taken our own view after that.

"We think that in four years time the council will be a third smaller in budgetary terms.”

A cut in funding will clearly also mean fewer staff.

In October, the Lancashire Telegraph reported that as many as 6,000 county council jobs could go as bosses face up to more austere times.

Mr Halsall will not confirm or deny that figure but insists most job losses can be found without compulsory redundancies.

When it’s pointed out that companies and councils always claim to be able to axe jobs through volunteers and retirees, he replies: “I was at Liverpool Council in 2000 when we let 6,000 people go and there were no compulsories, so it can be done.”

It is also clear that services - like education, social care, transport and highways - will all be run through with a fine tooth comb to unearth efficiencies.

Despite that, cuts are bound to be painful for some, if not many, a fact that can’t be shirked.

Some savings, he insists, will be made in two relatively painless ways.

Mr Halsall says £11million a year will be saved by a joint partnership between the council and telecoms giant BT to deliver customer services.

Meanwhile, finance chiefs hope to pay off loans early and re-borrow at rock-bottom interest rates to be more economical.

Despite the challenge of grappling with huge budget cuts being most likely to shape Mr Halsall’s tenure, he is keen to stress it is not all about the numbers.

He wants the council’s 24,000-strong workforce to help make the authority more streamlined and efficient too.

And then in what could be construed as a criticism of previous bosses, he adds: “The culture of this place has always been very centralised and hierarchical.

"People are in positions and are told what to do and not asked their opinion.

"That has to change. One of the ways we can change for the better is to listen to people’s ideas.”

He may be the new top man but he is looking for a bit of help.

PHIL HALSALL

Age: 52
Lives: Southport
Salary: £195,000 as chief executive, an increase of £65,000 on his executive director of resources pay

Career

1979-1984: finance department, Sefton Council
1984-1985: finance, Cheshire County Council
1985-1988, finance, Bolton Council
1988-1996: local government consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Manchester
1996-2000: chief executive, South Ribble Council
2000-2009: finance director, Liverpool Council
2009-2011: executive director of resources, Lancashire County Council
2011: chief executive, Lancashire County Council