Budget gap in Swindon Borough Council’s budget set to balloon
This years' £14m deficit could grow to £27m in next march's budget
The gap between income and spending in Swindon Borough’s Council’s budget for next year might grow by more than £10 million by March as care costs rise.
The news comes after £10 million in savings has already been been identified.
Members of Swindon Borough Council’s ruling Labour cabinet will discuss a report from the cabinet member for finance Councillor Kevin Small on preparations underway of next years’ revenue budget.
There is an overspend in this year’s budget of more than £3 million pounds – and that’s after a deficit of £14 million was filled by receipts from selling some of the council’s assets – mainly commercial buildings in Swindon.
Cllr Small said: “The council continues to face an extremely serious financial position. And while there has been some improvements in the forecast for the current year the gap remains very challenging at £3.4 million.”
More concerning is a forecast budget for 2026-27 with a huge £27 million deficit.
Council finance bosses are expecting the authority to have to spend about £220 million in the next financial year on its day-to-day services – while receiving an income from council tax, government grants, business rates and fees and charges of £194 million.
Cllr Small confirmed that officers are already in the process of applying to Whitehall for Exceptional Financial Support.
If granted, that would not see the government actually giving the council any more money, but it would be allowed to either borrow money or sell more of its property and use the money in its day-to-day spending, both normally against local government finance rules.
The £27 million gap comes after £10 million in savings has already been identified, £3.5 million coming as an early saving as part of the council’s transformation plan.
That sees the council organising its services so that issues that might see elderly or vulnerable adults or children need council intervention receive attention earlier, with the hope that the demand on the council is much lighter and less expensive.
The growth in demand for adult care services and especially services for children, which the council must provide in law, accounts for 84 per cent of its spending this year, and is driving the growing budget deficit.
The council’s chief executive officer, Sam Mowbray, said: “The less people need us at the council, the better.
“The transformation plan will mean that we provide help and support earlier which means they aren’t coming to us at crisis point when any help we can give is also much more expensive.”
Ms Mowbray added that before long central government must grip the crisis in council funding and make significant changes: “I speak to a lot of other local authority chief executives, and there’s a conveyor belt we are all on, and eventually we fall off – there has to be a structural change to the way local government is funded that is not within the gift of individual councils.”