Conservatives fail to act leaving £2.3 million hole in Budget

The Conservative administration has come under fire for failing to act to balance the £2.3 million Budget Outturn overspend. At Full Council they were criticised for not using the funding that was available to them to balance the Budget Outturn. The amendment setting the record straight was agreed by Full Council.

During the meeting, Councillor Michael Headley explained the financial situation that was left to them by the previous administration “Last financial year was obviously a challenging year for the Council, particularly with the pressures caused by inflationary costs and the state of the economy that the government failed to get a grip of and in fact made worse through disastrous policies like the Liz Truss Budget.

“However, the Council was in a very strong position to deal with these external pressures and regular reports to full council made clear the strategy we had in hand and the tools available if they were needed. Despite this, you haven’t used the tools that were available and instead added £1.3 million to reserves rather than covering revenue costs in year. Shouldn’t that have been a priority, over adding funds to reserves?

One of the funds that was available to the Conservative administration was the £2.137 million Social Care Turbulence Fund, set up to be able to continue to provide quality social care despite rising costs. However, the new administration only used £1 million of this, leaving over £1 million untouched.

Councillor Headley continued “You made no attempt to prioritise balancing the outturn report. I don’t know if that was due to being new in the job or that you were happy to present a worse picture than was necessary? Whichever way it was I think it is important for Full Council to set the record straight tonight. The tools to do the job of balancing the outturn were right in front of you, but you made decisions not to do that.

“And let’s not forget – when this Budget was set, the Conservative proposal would have reduced income by £2 million. Whichever way you look at it the council would now be at least £2 million worse off. At the start of the year you wanted to reduce income by £2 million and at the end of the year you allowed the Outturn to be over £2 million – despite having the tools to deal with it. Not a great record.

“Let’s just remember we inherited form the County Council: £90 million of external debt; a record of high Council Tax rises; a landfill site with no funding for reclamation; and countless schools relying on temporary classrooms.

“In contrast you inherit: a reduction of £30 million in external debt; a record of keeping council tax down; strong levels of reserves; and 10 new schools and temporary classrooms replaced.

“Every year will have its challenges – we went through austerity, including in-year grant reductions, the pandemic and soaring inflation. The test is how you deal with those pressures and that is what residents will be looking to you to do over the months ahead.”