Council must ‘take actions now’ to avoid huge overspend

A budget monitoring report for quarter one of 2024-25 came before the cabinet at its Town Hall meeting on Monday.

It stated that, at the end of quarter one, the financial forecast outturn for 2024-25 is an overspend of £28.985 million.

Cllr Denis Matthews – who is the cabinet member for finance, assets and investments – said ‘no one ever went into public service in order to cut it back’.

“The essential services that our council delivers, are relied upon by all the people of Warrington, with our most vulnerable residents needing us the most,” he added.

“I do not play down the responsibility of the council to manage its own budget, but we do not operate within a financial vacuum.

“As has been made perfectly clear by the new Labour Government, the national finances are in a shocking position and, indeed, even with the welcome change in tone and language from our new Government, there is a legacy cost of 14 years of Tory national mismanagement.

“The economic and social damage that the Conservative Party have delivered across the local government sector should never be forgotten, but it remains our job as Labour councillors to take all necessary actions to avoid issuing a Section 114 notice, however, only through multi-year settlements, fairer funding and long-term reform of the funding system across local government can councils build the financial resilience that we all need.

“We will keep doing all that we can to manage the pressures on our budget and work with the new Government to resolve the national problem of council funding.”

Council leader Cllr Hans Mundry said there “isn’t an overspend today, this is a forecasted projected overspend on the knowledge we know, what the needs going to be”.

He added “we have to take actions now to make sure that the deficit doesn’t materialise in reality, so we’re taking actions to make sure the overspend doesn’t occur”.