Stoke-on-Trent City Council has warned that without £44.7m of additional funding from the government, the authority will not be able to balance its budget.
In September 2023, the council warned that it was at “significant risk” of not being able to set a balanced budget for the 2024/25 financial year due to the rising demand for its care services and the current economic environment. At the time, Stoke had predicted a budget gap of £8.5m for 2023/24, with the authority making one-off mitigations of about £15m to balance its books in 2022/23.
This week, the authority has launched a consultation on 2024/25 budget proposals that include making savings of £3.4m, with a further £4.6m to be made in back-office work. Alongside this, proposals to cut 16.1 net full-time equivalent job losses and increase council tax by 4.99% are also being considered.
In addition, the council has announced that it is in talks with the government for a package of extra financial support of up to £44.7m over a two-year period.
Jane Ashworth, Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s leader, said: “We have been open and transparent since we took office last May that we inherited a legacy of huge budget pressures and predicted overspends.
“We can only work through this by a combination of making savings, increasing council tax, reducing pressures by transforming services and receiving extra financial support from government. This is the only way we can balance our budget.
“Failure to set a balanced budget will probably result in government commissioners running the council, like in other areas across the country, which may result in radical cuts to services that we know local people care deeply about such as potentially closing leisure centres and museums, stopping street cleaning and grass cutting, less highway maintenance and less frequent bin collections.”
According to the council, the increasing demand for adults and children’s social care is the main reason for its financial difficulties. It currently has 1,150 children and 3,5000 adults requiring support.
“Years of austerity, which have seen £250m taken out of city council budgets over the past 10 years, the enduring impact of the Covid pandemic and the growing pressures of social care are taking its toll right across the country – at least one in five councils are facing the prospect of not being able to set a balanced budget in this or future years,” Ashworth added.
The news of Stoke requesting additional financial support from the government comes as Somerset Council warned that it will be forced to issue a section 114 notice unless the government grants the authority a £20.8m capitalisation direction and approval to increase council tax.
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