Welcome funding is still ‘not enough’
Royal Borough: Borough to get its share of a £500m emergency fund to prop up social care services
The Royal Borough has welcomed central Government’s recent funding allocation but said ‘it’s not enough’ for the borough’s current financial position.
During Wednesday’s cabinet meeting at York House, cabinet member for finance, Councillor Lynne Jones (OWRA,
Old Windsor) acknowledged the ‘huge amount of work’ done to issue a balanced draft 2024/25 budget last month.
But she said despite being ‘successful in making savings and strengthening financial governance’, the financial position remains vulnerable, with a continuing risk of a Section 114 notice being issued.
An S114 notice is an emergency measure that bans new council expenditure and protects the statutory services the council is legally obliged to provide for vulnerable people.
On Wednesday, communities secretary Michael Gove said local authorities would receive £500million emergency funding to prevent substantial cuts to children’s and adult social care services.
Cllr Jones said: “I’ve seen the [government] statement… and I do welcome this but I don’t think it’s enough to solve the ongoing demand.
“At the start of the year, we had the lowest general fund reserves of any unitary as a dire consequence of historic financial decision-making making and we are forecasting reserves of half that amount [next financial year].
“We’re seeing cost increase requests from care providers of around 15 per cent. Children’s services spending has increased due to an increase in placements.
“It’s obvious that where we have control over service demand, we are achieving a very challenging budget. Where the demand for services is beyond our control, we are seeing higher overspends.
“We have no choice but to review all but essential services due to funding shortfalls. We have very little choice in how we allocate the sparse resources we have left.”
She said these dilemmas are being faced by councils across the country and borough residents are facing a ‘double whammy’ of ‘council tax going up’ and ‘day-to-day services going down’.
Councillor Geoff Hill (tBfI, Oldfield) asked how the reduction in government grants and the long-running council tax cap has affected the borough.
Cllr Jones responded: “We have low council taxes because of years of cuts and freezes. The council tax capped at such a low baseline, coupled with the reduced funding from the central government, affects the amount we can spend on residents. We have an amount of £1,500 per dwelling per year that we can spend. Our spend per dwelling is in the bottom one per cent of local authorities and that’s basically what’s got us here.”
Chief executive Stephen Evans added: “The government announcing more money for councils today is a recognition that there’s a problem...but it’s not enough.”
He said ‘it’s really tight’ as care providers are estimating the rates for supported living and residential care and day services to rise by 17 per cent despite inflation being at 4 per cent.
Cllr Jones said: “Our greatest area of spending in children’s services is placements for children in care and we’re a needs-based service – we have to protect vulnerable children in our community. Since October 2023, we’ve had 11 new children in care come into our service which is high for us. But none of these situations were where we had any real choice because we’ve got a responsibility to make sure those children are safe and well cared for.”