Yahoo News Hartlepool Council chiefs discuss plans to tackle projected £13m budget gap for next year
Council finance chiefs have warned the local authority is facing a more than £13million budget gap for next year.
Hartlepool Borough Council bosses said the budget deficit forecast for 2025/26 is at present predicted to be £13.144million, while the estimated three year gap over the period to 2027/28 is £21.522million. James Magog, director of finance, IT and digital, said it is a "difficult financial picture facing local government as a whole, including our council".
This comes amid a number of challenges including the rising cost of children's social care, inflation, staff pay awards and regional waste disposal fees. The latest meeting of the finance and policy committee heard plans from officers around how the budget could be balanced in 2025/26 ahead of decisions being made by councillors in January and February.
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Finance chiefs suggested should a council tax referendum limit of 5%, consisting of a 2.99% core council tax rise and a 2% adult social care precept, be put in place nationally and applied in Hartlepool, this would bring in an additional £2.625million. Savings proposals of £2.954million have also been drawn up by council officers which will go before the relevant policy committees for discussion over the coming month.
A report noted the council has sought to "minimise the impact on staff numbers" and "it is envisaged any reductions in staffing will predominantly be removal of vacant posts, natural turnover and voluntary redundancy". Elsewhere finance bosses suggested a "potential maximum use" of £3.5million from the local authority's reserves could be used to address the deficit.
Officers noted the council has relied on reserves "for a lot of years now" and although it is "not good practice" using them to balance the budget, the gap will be "significant" without some use of the cash. The meeting heard these measures being implemented would still leave a £4.065million budget gap to be addressed for 2025/26.
Local authority chiefs noted there remains "significant uncertainty with regard to the outcome of the final local government finance settlement" for next year, which is expected week commencing December 16. However Mr Magog said they would "envisage a significant closing of that gap" when funding from government is announced and in the meantime the council is continuing to develop savings proposals ahead of an update in the new year.
Councillor Brenda Harrison, council leader, said there was a "continued hope that things will improve in the future".
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