Surrey County Council’s finance director has left her post suddenly as the council’s financial problems continue to mount.
Sheila Little, former president of the Society of County Treasurers, departed earlier this month with councillors receiving less than 24 hours’ notice of the news.
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This week, a council report said the authority is forecasting an £11.8m overspend on its 2018–19 budget.
A statement from the council said: “We’ve embarked upon a comprehensive transformation programme to deliver the best outcomes for our residents, and this is requiring a new approach across the county council.
“Sheila Little has decided that this is a good time for her to pursue other opportunities and we wish her well with these.”
The council is looking to recruit a replacement. In the meantime, Kevin Kiburn, deputy chief finance officer, will act as section 151 officer at the authority.
Andrew Povey, a Conservative councillor and former council leader, told Room151: “A director of finance leaving at such short notice is a big red flashing light over the council’s finances.”
He added that it was “theoretically possible” that the scale of savings needed this year and next had played a role in Little’s departure.
“It wouldn’t be unreasonable for a professional person to say, ‘I don’t want to do this,’ and go somewhere where the outlook was more positive,” he said.
Labour councillor Robert Evans said: “The departure seems to be clouded in a cloak of secrecy that isn’t needed. There must be a reason she went at 24 hours’ notice.
“We have a new chief executive in position. If she decided she wanted a new team, then that would be legitimate. Nobody would have complained if she had said we are going to start from scratch. But that hasn’t been said either.”
In addition to the savings required to balance this year’s budget, the council faces serious challenges in 2019.
In a document published earlier this year on the council’s medium-term financial plan, Little estimated next year’s shortfall in funding compared to spending plans at £86m.
The report said that “at this stage the director of finance has no realistic expectation that funding levels assumed for 2019–20 will alter sufficiently to change her view that significant service transformation is needed by the council to set a balanced budget in that year.”
In May, the county council released a transformation plan aiming to reduce annual expenditure by £250m over the next three years.
However, the council said: “The additional benefit of the transformation programme will start to flow from 2019–20, but the bulk of the savings will inevitably follow in 2020–21 for the council to attain a sustainable budget in future years.”
Povey said: “I don’t have a problem with the transformation plans but they have not been put in place yet.
“We are in July and the full business case has not been made, with the savings set to start from April next year.”
In 2017 Surrey made headlines when the council leader annouced plans for a local referendum on a 15% hike in council tax.
However, the referendum was dropped and Surrey became a business rates retention pilot area well ahead of the national start date of 2020.
