Council forecasts £12.1m budget overspend

Coventry City Council wants more help from the government

Coventry City Council has forecast a £12.1m overspend in its budget and said some "difficult decisions" needed to be made.

Despite already taking action to reduce expenditure, budget pressures from social care accounted for nearly £11m of the underlying overspend, the local authority said.

The government must take action to help councils as service costs were becoming unmanageable, it added.

Councillors will discuss a financial monitoring report on 29 August.

'Step in'

Richard Brown, cabinet member for finance, said the council, along with other public sector organisations, was heading towards a tipping point.

In 2011, the council spent about 40% of its budget on social care, but that had now risen to almost 70% in 2023, he added.

"As well as dealing with greater numbers of vulnerable people who need complex care packages provided by external companies, the cost of all services continues to spiral due to inflation" he said.

"I am planning to write to the government to request that they step in, otherwise more and more councils will find that they are simply unable to balance their budget."

He said if the government did not take action, then many councils would be facing a situation where "we have to take a hard look at some of the services that local people value and decide whether they can continue to provide them".