Council department bosses and managers are being asked to find savings – as a finance boss warned of “troublesome times”.
Rising interest rates, soaring inflation and growing pressures in the adult and children’s social care departments mean the council needs to find £6.7m to balance the books.
The authority’s budget was set in February, but since then the cost of living crisis has only worsened.
A pay settlement of two per cent was factored in for the 2022/2023 for council staff, but this is likely to be significantly higher once negotiated.
Asked about the situation by scrutiny committee chair Cllr Jonny Crawshaw, council finance manager Patrick Looker said: “We should all be worried”.
He added: “That’s why we’re speaking to all directors and our service managers and looking at what we can stop doing.
“There are services that we currently provide which we probably will have to reduce to within our means.
“I’m not going to turn around and say everything will be fine because it’s troublesome times.”
Only so much money
A council finance report said it would require difficult decisions to be made in order to protect frontline services, but Cllr Crawshaw said more or less everything the council did could be considered a frontline service.
Mr Looker replied: “There’s only so much money that the council can bring in and it has to spend that on the services that they provide.
“We go to elected members to say ‘what are your priorities? Which vulnerable residents are most important to support? What services can we afford to provide and what services can we not afford to provide?’”
Without any changes, the council’s current forecast overspend of £6.7m would decimate its reserves, leaving it in a “very, very difficult position” for 2023/24, Mr Looker added.
Out of city placements and the continued use of agency staff within children’s social care and the cost of care beds and use of agency staff in adult social care are two of the biggest areas of overspend.
“We cannot afford to continue overspending at the rate that we are in those particular service areas,” Mr Looker said.
Cllr Crawshaw ended the debate by making a plea to councillors not to over-politicise the difficult situation regarding the council’s financial position in the run up to local council elections in May 2023.
[tptn_list limit=3 daily=1 hour_range=1]