Responding to the announcement that Exeter City Council will receive a reduction of 13.6% in central government funding, Council Leader Pete Edwards, said: "We are fortunate to be in a very strong position. Financially we are a very robust council and set the fourth lowest council tax in the country. "We have been preparing for this, and further budget cuts, and have found several ways to be more efficient without touching frontline services; like reducing the costs of running our offices, restructuring to cut management costs and generating internal service efficiencies. This has enabled the Council to introduce a number of new initiatives such as the Living Wage to its lowest paid employees and to continue to support economic growth across the region. "Despite these difficult times, we are still growing as a city, building new homes for families and supporting the local economy. However, we need to be realistic. We must find more ways of saving money and will be working with community groups to find new ways of running local services. This will involve some difficult decisions, but standing still is not an option."
