Councillor 'confident' County Council will balance its budget by April

Nottinghamshire County Council is predicting its overspend to be under £1 million by the end of April 2025 – dropping by over £3 million. In a report from the start of November 2024, the council’s predicted overspend by next April was around £4.4 million.

Now in an updated report from December 9, that figure has fallen by more than £3 million with the council forecast to have an overspend of £903,000 by the end of the financial year. The Conservative-run council is still overspending in some departments – by £10.5m in adult social care and £3.5m in the children and families department.

This is balanced out by underspending in other areas. Councillor Richard Jackson (Con), cabinet member for finance, says the figures have been achieved through means like vacancy control, management of the council’s cash flow and assessing the spending controls of different departments.

He said: “What it shows is it’s from careful management rather than reducing services which is always the approach we take to things. It reassures people we can manage our finance prudently without the need for significant service reductions that people would notice.”

Councillor André Camilleri (Con), Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance, is “confident” the council will balance its budget by April. He said: “We’re prudent in the way we manage, we have regular meetings with departments, we ask the difficult questions- if they come to us with an overspend, we will ask them why, what can you do to get it back?”

Responding to the overspend in children’s and adult social care, Councillor Camilleri said: “It’s very difficult to budget adult care, people cross over from being a child to an adult- we work with what they’ve got. Adult and child care will always be difficult, but we manage to do it, we’re not in any financial difficulty [at present].”

He added that this could change however – depending on potential added costs to the council on the new national insurance figures and the projected £30 million extra spend on adult social care.

County Councillor Rachel Madden (Ind), Executive Lead Member for Finance, Revenues and Benefits at Ashfield District Council said: “Nottinghamshire County Council have consistently failed to spend within its budgets unlike councils like Ashfield, who were recently praised by the LGA for its financial stability and excellence.

“I will repeat my offer to the County Council to make our officers from Ashfield available for advice on how to balance the books. Whilst this represents a smaller, in-year overspend than they initially thought – the reality is that Nottinghamshire County Council still faces a budget shortfall of millions by 2027/28.

“The latest figures are no cause for celebration as the County Council, face an uncertain future fuelled by 14 years of Conservative austerity and the massive financial impact of the Labour Government’s recent budget. We are now waiting with baited breathe for the imminent Local Government Settlement – which could spell more bad news for the cash strapped council.”

Responding to the council’s updated position, Councillor Kate Foale (Lab) said: “This is just the latest example of creative accounting from the Tories in County Hall. “Instead of responsible governance and increase efficiency, the bulk of the supposed reduction in this year’s overspend is due to more money coming in from national government and projects being kicked into the next financial year.”

“Although, disappointingly, we have not yet been given a chance to properly scrutinise this report, this smacks of the Tories playing politics with the council’s finances: they overinflate the projected overspends one month, and then artificially reduce them the next. The public deserve honesty about how their taxes are spent. That’s what they’ll get from a Labour administration following the elections in May.”

Councillor Jackson and Councillor Camilleri say the council will work to reduce this overspend even further before April. Between 2025 to 2026 to 2027 to 2028 the council projects a budget shortfall of £36 million across the duration of its Medium-Term Financial Strategy.