Reform-led council forecasts £9.4m overspend

North Northamptonshire Council said the overspend was down to pressures in both children's and adult services

A Reform UK-led council has forecast a budget overspend of £9.4m in its first quarter of the financial year.

About two-thirds of the overspend from North Northamptonshire Council sits with the Northamptonshire Children's Trust (NCT), which has exceeded its budgets year on year, with the council picking up extra costs of nearly £6m.

The trust's budget pressures were down to high costs and demand for placements for children in care, as well as spends on staffing, the council was told.

Graham Cheatley, executive member for finance, efficiency and change, said the forecast "reflects the increasing financial challenges that local government is facing around social care for both adults and children".

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the financial pressures on the council were down to growing demands for statutory services, which were often subject to expensive outsourcing costs to independent providers.

The council also heard there was a £2.7m overspend in adult services for residential and nursing care, staffing and social care transport.

Cheatley said the financial challenges facing the council were "a theme that we've obviously seen and had to accept over the last few years".

"I am confident that the officers will continue to seek mitigations to provide efficiencies," he added.

The predicted spend for the year represents a 2.9% increase on the authority's £405m budget, which the former Conservative administration set earlier this year.

Reform UK took control of the council in the May local elections.

The authority has set aside a contingency fund of just under £3m to combat "exceptional expenditure", which has not yet been used.

It could be employed later in the year to help balance the books, the authority said.