County braced for £18.5m overspend as it hikes its share of council tax

DERBYSHIRE County Council is braced for a £18.5 million overspend as it enters 2022-23, much of which will be spent on adult social care, children’s services and highways.

A meeting of Cabinet approved how the authority plans to manage its budget of £618.5m for the coming financial year.

They also rubber-stamped a three per cent Council Tax increase, which equates to an extra £41.49 for a band D household.

The Conservative-controlled authority forecast overspends of £6.2m for adult care, £5.4m for children’s services, £2.6m for highways and travel and £4.9m for corporate services.

Councillor Simon Spencer, member for corporate services and budget, said: “This administration understands very clearly the pressures the public are facing, from inflation and other pressures which are outside of our control.

“We have tried to take into account all those issues. We wish to help local communities we represent and try and understand and do the best we can and make sure we allocate the resources we have in the best possible way.”

He said that much of the overspend in children’s services focused around placements and school transport, while a lot of corporate services expenditure was due to seeking legal advice with child protection issues.

Cllr Spencer hoped the county would have a mild winter, which might ease the pressure on the highways budget.

Barry Lewis, leader of the council, said the council tax increase was below inflation.

“I think the measure of this is it’s a great budget for Derbyshire, given the difficulties we have had as a county over the last couple of years.”

The council is still seeking to make £67 million in cutbacks by the financial year 2026-27.