DORSET County Council is entering a 'new phase' of its savings programme as it attempts to trim more than £43million from its budget over the next three years.

Members of the council's cabinet received updates on the authority's Meeting Future Challenges savings project and medium term financial strategy at their latest meeting.

The authority is aiming to find £16.5m in savings during the current financial year as it faces continued reductions in government funding.

The report considered by members revealed that of 140 projects identified for the current financial year, 76 were already complete however, with a number of projects expected to slip or unlikely to achieve the savings identified the current projected shortfall in savings was £940,000.

Chief executive Debbie Ward outlined how work was underway with a series of 'challenge groups' to look at how the council is working and identify new ways of working that will help the authority cope in the difficult economic climate moving forward.

Cabinet member for corporate resources Robert Gould said: “We are entering a new phase of the Meeting Future Challenges programme with these challenge groups.”

Director for corporate resources Paul Kent said that the projected future savings targets in coming years were £13.5m for 2014/15 and £13.1m in 2015/16.

However, he added those figures were based on a council tax increase of two per cent in both of those years and if the authority was to freeze council tax it would have to find a further £1.8million in each year.

Mr Kent added that the need for savings was likely to continue beyond the next three years.

He said: “We can look forward to at least another five years of austerity measures in an attempt to make our contribution towards bringing the national deficit down.”

Mr Kent said that part of the work of the challenge groups needed to be looking at how the council might look in five years time.

Coun Gould added: “The financial climate in which we are operating will continue for the foreseeable future so our transformational work needs to continue and to intensify.”

Coun Jill Haynes said: “Change and radical change is the way we are going to move forward.”