The City of York Council has cut its capital programme for this financial year by nearly £82m due to a predicted £33m cumulative budget gap and “need to reduce expenditure”.
In February, the authority’s executive approved a capital budget for 2024/25 of £215.9m. However, following a review, the programme has been reduced to £134.2m, a report by the City of York has revealed.
The review particularly focused on the phasing of the council’s £59m York Outer Ring Road project. The original capital programme had allocated £22.6m of investment for 2024/25 but this spending has been pushed back two years, according to the revised plan.
The review also reprofiled the funding for the council’s York Central schemes. One key change is that £35m of investment towards infrastructure work has been moved to 2025/26 “onwards”.
Other work the council has rephased relates to various other maintenance and transport projects.
The City of York’s report stated that the review was conducted to identify ways in which capital expenditure could be reduced “given the forecasted financial position of the council”. Overall, the slippage in the capital programme will reduce the council’s borrowing costs.
This comes as the City of York forecasts an overspend of £3.4m for 2024/25.
Alongside this, the council’s medium-term forecast anticipates a £29.5m cumulative budget gap for the council until 2027/28, with individual funding gaps of £9.9m in 2025/26, £10m in 2026/27 and £9.6m in 2027/28.
According to the council’s report, the City of York’s spending power has reduced in real terms by 28.5% since 2010/11.
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