Like all local authorities across the country, Bracknell Forest Council is experiencing challenges in balancing its budget due to increased demand, rising costs and previous underfunding.
Cabinet councillors will discuss the council’s in-year budget at a meeting on Tuesday 15 October. They will be asked to note the current financial position and endorse plans to reduce expenditure.
Currently, the council’s budget is predicting an overspend this year of just under £300,000 rising to £2.7 million when taking in to account significant emerging issues like rising demand and costs for social care services. Action was taken over the summer to reduce the initial predicted overspend which was up to £3.6 million. Because of this, the council’s finances are in a better position this autumn. However, further action is needed to balance the books by the end of the year.
While this is a challenging position, it is less stark than the situation most other local authorities are facing. Bracknell Forest has no immediate risk of bankruptcy (a section 114 notice in local government terms) or financial intervention.
Measures to bring spending down will continue to include:
- not spending money on anything that isn’t essential for service delivery
- only recruiting to critical vacant job roles
- reviewing fees and charges
The squeeze on the council’s budget is due to a range of issues. These include:
- inflation and price increase
- loss of business rates due to a national review
- extra need for social care services as well as rising demands for other services
- previous underfunding from central government
There is also financial pressure from the Safety Valve programme, which the council agreed with central government earlier this year. The aim of the programme is to help councils efficiently manage their spending on the high needs element of their dedicated schools’ grant.
While progress is being made to deliver the actions identified to reduce costs over time, the council has continued to experience an increase in Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). This means the council has had to purchase expensive outside support while developing its own local provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Cllr Kathryn Neil, cabinet member for finance and corporate improvement, said:
“Local government is facing a serious financial challenge at the moment and Bracknell Forest is not unique in experiencing difficulty balancing its budget.
“We’re continuing to face rising costs, extra demand for essential and critical services like social care and special educational needs and disabilities, a loss of business rate revenue and all this is against a backdrop of years of national underfunding. Even the former Secretary of State for Local Government has recently acknowledged that local councils took more than their fair share of the pain during austerity.
“While balancing our budget will be challenging, we are continuing to take positive and proactive action to bring the predicted overspend down – which has already reduced the predicted pressure.
“We are in a much more comfortable position than most other local authorities and I want to reassure residents that we are in no danger of bankruptcy – our focus is to respond to this challenge and ensure we continue to provide cost effective services for all our residents.”
