Shropshire Council to be £487,000 better off than it predicted

Reports due to go to the authority’s cabinet meeting next week said the latest predicted revenue outturn is an underspend of £59,000.

It was predicted to be an overspend of more than £400,000 just a few months ago.

In November Shropshire Council predicted a £5 million overspend by the end of this financial year if no changes were made.

The overspend forecast in children’s services alone was expected to be £3.9 million.

The report also revealed a new ongoing budget pressure relating to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children of more than £500,000.

The cabinet voted to take action which included a spending freeze, and at the time it was predicted that the overspend could be reduced to £428,000.

Liberal Democrat leader Roger Evans labelled the financial state “a catastrophe”.

But Shropshire Council’s leader Peter Nutting reassured councillors that finances were under control and savings had been, and continue to be, made.

Now a prediction in the Financial Monitoring Report states that the council will have £59,000 left over.

The report also states that the predicted general fund balance for the end of the financial year is £14.886m.

It was revealed that the council needs to make £36 million of savings in the next financial year.

The funding gap is then expected to grow by £6 million per year, so by the financial year 2022/23 the gap would be about £59 million.

A number of measures were agreed at the council’s cabinet meeting in October.

There are a number of reasons for the increase in the amount of money the authority needs to save.

They include growing demand in children’s services, growth in adult services, and the “cumulative impact of changes and loss in funding that are, nevertheless, tied to the statutory delivery of services”.

The latest report will go to Shropshire Council’s cabinet meeting in Shirehall on Wednesday.