Southend Budget position to be discussed by Cabinet

September 13, 2024

A report on the council's finances up to the end of July 2024 (four months into the financial year) will be discussed on Monday 16 September (Cabinet papers).

Cabinet will discuss the continued pressures facing the council and the actions that will continue to reduce a forecast overspend of around £8.1m by 31 March 2025, and therefore deliver a balanced budget.

The report highlights the scale of the national issue regarding children’s social care costs, with the average residential social placement cost now currently running at £335,000 per annum per child. This has been steadily increasing since 2016/17 and way above average inflationary rises since the end of 2022/23. The average price of a residential care placement is also now 67% higher than it was in 2021/22 and has further increased by 18% from 2023/24. Other pressures include a forecast overspend of £670,000 in waste disposal fees for non-recycled waste, and the number of people in temporary accommodation - which although below the national average has seen a 35% increase year on year. This is creating a forecast overspend of £440,000 in temporary accommodation costs.

The rate of inflation has reduced and although this is positive news as it means prices will rise more slowly, the rise is on top of the existing higher prices meaning pressure across most service budgets continues to increase.

Cllr Daniel Cowan, Leader of the Council said: “This is the first financial report of the financial year and as with previous reports shows the challenges we are facing as a council and the actions that continue to be taken to deal with them.

“We will continue to work with officers and across the chamber to ensure that we deliver the modernisation and transformation needed and that a balanced budget is delivered by the end of the financial year. We will take action to reduce these pressures but a simple and supportive thing residents can do to help is to ensure they are recycling everything they can, so we spend less on waste disposal. Please see our website for details on what you can recycle.”

Cllr Paul Collins, cabinet member for finance, assets, and investments said: “The current forecast overspend is £8.1m, which although representing just 2% of our gross budget needs continued action to bring it back in line by the end of March 2025. Whilst our finances continue to be well-managed, our financial situation remains challenging with 84% of our service budget pressures coming in statutory social care services. We will continue speaking with Government about what future financial settlement the sector will receive and continuing to lobby for a longer-term settlement so that we can better plan for the future.”