Council £6m overspend 'sobering', says leader

Reading Borough Council spent £170.5m, despite its budget being £164.4m

A council leader has said the authority "cannot keep running on reserves" after revealing a £6m overspend.

Councillors at Reading Borough Council received a report on its overspending for the 2023/24 financial year.

It showed the council spent £170.5m, despite its budget being £164.4m.

The overspend will now be paid for using the council’s Financial Resilience Reserve, leaving £8.2m remaining.

Director of finance for the council, Darren Carter, presented the figures and said the authority "had to do better".

The overspend comes after Reading Borough Council gained £26m of funding for its bus service improvement plan.

It was also given £19.1m of "levelling up" funding, awarded for projects to upgrade The Hexagon and relocate the Central Library into the council offices.

Council leader Liz Terry said it would take time to turn around "14 years of underfunding and austerity"

Council leader Liz Terry admitted the financial report was "sobering" and said that the council “cannot keep running on reserves”.

She said: “It does take some time to turn around 14 years of underfunding and austerity.

“But we also do have to hold some hope and faith for our town and public services generally, that a Labour government has heard that, does understand it, and in due course will find a way to bring funding forward.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves recently said the government has a forecasted overspend of £21.9bn and she would need to make "difficult decisions" on tax at the next budget in October.