Langeland approves budget after deep public service cuts

Langeland Municipality, one of Denmark’s poorest municipalities, has approved its budget after lengthy negotiations over a large shortfall, DR reports. The agreement includes fewer adults in after-school programmes, cleaning for elderly residents only every four weeks and the closure of a care home.

The municipality received 68 million of the 115 million kroner it had requested in special state funding. As a result, its politicians had to find around 24 million kroner in savings next year, while facing the need to cut more than 44 million kroner in 2028.

The cuts agreed by the municipal council for the 2027 to 2030 budget also include greater use of robot vacuum cleaners for elderly people living at home, and the merger of a nursery and kindergarten in Vejlen. Stigtebo Care Centre in Lohals will close.

Conservative mayor Jørgen Nielsen said the negotiations had been extremely difficult.

“We have saved on everything. These have been enormously hard decisions,” he said.

He said the decision to close a care home was particularly painful because the municipality did not want to move elderly residents. He described the agreement as the best of the bad options.

Residents are also worried about the cuts. Rigmor Karlshøj, who lives on Langeland, told DR in Rudkøbing that it was becoming difficult to make further savings while maintaining services for children and older people.

“It is a catastrophe that more has to be cut,” she said, adding that she believed Langeland should receive more funding from outside the municipality.