“IN an ideal world we wouldn’t do this but unfortunately we’re not in an ideal world.”

This was the message from Louise Goldsmith, leader of West Sussex County Council, after proposed funding cuts feared by homelessness charities and police were made real.

After weeks of speculation, the council has confirmed it will cut the housing related support budget from £6.3m to £4.6m in 2019/20 and then to £2.3m in 2020/21.

Other cuts will see the Local Area Assistance (LAN) budget, which provides crisis support, such as food banks and Citizens Advice, reduced from £807k to £200k per year.

And the Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG), which gives people who receive publicly funded care and support enough money to cover day-to-day living costs, will be cut to the statutory minimum.

In an ideal world, West Sussex wouldn’t have had its government funding cut by £145m in the last eight years, cutting £200m from its own budget over the same period.

In an ideal world, the county wouldn’t have to find another £145m of savings over the next four years and it wouldn’t be facing a gross budget gap of £50.9m in 2019/20.

But in an ideal world people wouldn’t be sleeping on the streets or be in such dire financial straits that they need to use food banks.

And they wouldn’t have to look to the council for help.

Last week, Sussex Police and the homeless charity Stonepillow issued stark warnings about the consequences of the cuts.

There were fears of more deaths among rough sleepers, as well as concerns about the monitoring and support of hundreds of sex offenders following their release from prison.

Mrs Goldsmith said: “It’s natural that they would raise all those concerns and of course we listen to those concerns.”

West Sussex has been funding housing related support out of its core budget since 2011, when the government’s Supporting People grant was cut.

Mrs Goldsmith said: “There are parts that we don’t have to fund and that’s what we’ll be looking at, but there are a lot of old contracts currently within that supported housing which are really not fit for purpose.

“So it’s absolutely right that we go through this process.”

She added: “This is probably one of the hardest decisions we’ve ever made, but the financial situation is also equally hard.”

The final decision was made by Amanda Jupp, cabinet member for adults and health.

Earlier this month, members of the council’s health and adult services select committee (HASC) called on her to delay the decision after they were told that the money being spent essentially saved millions elsewhere.

Dr James Walsh, leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, accused Mrs Jupp of acting with ‘inordinate haste’ and attempting to ‘smuggle this devastating announcement through just before the Christmas break’.

Mrs Goldsmith, though, said Mrs Jupp had done ‘a really good job in working with all of the voluntary sector and councils.’