West Northamptonshire Council opposition wants action over funding gap

Opposition councillors have called for action to prevent an authority running out of money.

West Northamptonshire Council's cabinet was told £10m from its contingency funds was used to get the overall budget gap down to £7.6m.

The Labour group said local MPs should lobby for more funding and the council should streamline the way it operates.

The Conservative-run council said it would "consider all options" to reduce spending while protecting services.

The Revenue Monitoring document for the first quarter of 2022-23, which was presented to the cabinet, said the council had seen a "significant impact on its finances as a result of external factors".

These include inflationary and cost of living pressures which had an impact on the cost of providing services, the ongoing financial impact of Covid, and demand-led pressures on children's services and adult social care.

The £10m contingency would be used to bring down the forecast overspend to £7.6m, which represents 2.2% of the total net budget of £342.3m.

The Labour group said it was "alarming" that the "actual gap was £27.6m", with £10m found through "cuts to services" before the contingency was used.

It is concerned there could be a repeat of the financial problems that resulted in the old county council effectively going bankrupt.

Labour's finance spokeswoman, councillor Danielle Stone, said: "I am assured that good management of the budget is in place. However, good management is not sufficient.

"We need to move speedily to integrated systems. [And] we must bring services back in house.

"It is costing us the hugest amount of money to pay for services on the open market."

The council said it had developed plans to reduce the cost of providing services before the contingency was applied and denied Labour's claim it made £10m of service cuts, saying it was protecting service provision.

Executive director of finance, Martin Henry, said: "The variance is a little more than 2% of the total budget of the council for all the services it provides.

"However, we are committed to minimising the budget variance as far as we can, and we are dealing with the position in a proactive and open way.

"We will consider all options to continue to reduce expenditure and increase income to reduce the financial pressures being faced, whilst seeking to protect service provision wherever possible."

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