Solihull Council warns budget won't 'scratch the surface' of £7.7 million financial hole

The leader of cash-strapped Solihull Council says he is struggling to see how the budget will help improve its financial issues. Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an additional £1.3 billion of grant funding for local authorities, including at least £600 million for social care services, in Labour's first budget since being elected.

The wider West Midlands region is also to receive a share of various budget pots including of the £500m for the affordable homes programme and the £1 billion to protect vital bus routes. Ahead of the budget Ian Courts, the leader of the Solihull Council, had appealed to government for support as the current revenue forecast, to the end of the financial year (April 2025), is showing a hole in the authority’s finances of £7.7 million.

In his latest weekly briefing the leader writes: “There are a number of positive aspects about the budget, and some, well, less so. I shall have to wait until we have properly digested the detail before commenting more fully.

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“I cannot see that anything has yet scratched the surface of the financial problems local government is currently facing, bearing in mind the 22 per cent cut in core spending power over the years. Demographic changes and an ageing population, and the new duties and responsibilities councils have faced during that time, especially in adults and children’s services, now means these services alone account for three quarters of our spending; increases in costs, having to be funded by reductions in services elsewhere.”

Solihull’s £7.7 million deficit includes a forecast deficit of £2.2 million in education and £4.3 million in corporate and business rates, as well as £949,000 in children's social services care. In an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service in September the leader had said: “It’s not realistic to say there is anything we could have done (to prevent this situation).

“We have duties as a local authority. We have to comply with them. You (the government) can’t keep telling us to do more and giving us less.”

The original version of this story included incorrect figures saying the deficit was in billions. It is in fact millions, and the story has been amended to show this.