HARROW Council has frozen all spending after a pot of money from central government was unexpectedly cut.

Officers have put all spending plans on temporary hold until they find out how much money they will receive, but it is already anticipated some council programmes will have to be scrapped.

The news, part of a £6.2 billion of public spending cuts announced by the Tory-Lib Dem coalition this week, will affected all public bodies in Harrow, including the council, NHS Harrow, North West London Hospitals NHS Trust and Harrow Police.

The cuts are also expected to affect programmes being run by voluntary organisations and is another blow to the sector after NHS Harrow axed all their grants and implemented an urgent review of all spending to voluntary groups.

Councillor Bill Stephenson, leader of the council, described the news as “very disappointing” and ordered the spending freeze to assess the damage to public sector programmes.

Paul Najsarek, director of adults and housing at the council, told a meeting on Tuesday night that a major overhaul of the way adult care is delivered is now under threat.

He said the “ambitious” scheme, to cut the number of people in residential care by a third and allowing them to stay in their own homes, would save £2 million, but he could no longer be sure it would go ahead as planned.

The adult care scheme needs around £800,000 in set up costs, but Harrow is now facing the prospect of losing a large chunk of an expected £2.3m grant from central government.

Money originally set aside for “safer Harrow” projects between the police and the council could now be cut from more than £780,000 to less than £300,000, while other budgets like sustainable development, community cohesion, and the children's trust are likely to be hit just as hard.

Chief executives from the major public bodies in the borough are due to meet over the coming weeks to assess the damage and evaluate which projects can be rescued and which will have to be cut.