Haringey Council is facing a ‘significant’ overspend after being hit by huge demand for statutory services.
The London borough revealed that increasing pressures including children’s services and funding older people’s services had outstripped forecasts leaving it with a £9.1m overspend.
A budget monitoring report revealed it had managed to reduce costs by just £200,000 in the third quarter.
Costs had included rising demand for statutory provision for children that resulted in a £6.4m overspend and an overspend for older people was £4.7m.
A report to councillors said: “We have little means of influencing the numbers presenting; and further pressure due to both the increased complexity and numbers of children and young people in the borough with identified additional needs.”
Mitigations totalling £6.4m against all cost pressures included one-off funding from additional retained business rates, capitalisation opportunities and income generated by the transfer of commercial properties from the Housing Revenue Account into the General Fund.
All cost areas are under control except children’s services where the council warned that “the pressures driving these costs are significantly outside our control”. Officers expect to be budget by the end of the month.
The report warned: “Colleagues must be under no illusions about the impact on next year’s budgetary position and overall council resilience if any overspend remains at year end.”
