Adult care costs behind £8m predicted overspend

Wiltshire Council says it is taking action to tackle the hole its budget

Wiltshire Council is facing an £8m overspend for the next financial year.

A review of spending in the first four months of 2024/2025 found the increase was down to demand for adult social care packages.

It is forecast to cost £7.9m more than expected, with the total overspend reaching £8.3m. Lizzie Watkin, the council’s director of finance, said “immediate” action was being taken to address the issue.

“Obviously, an £8m overspend is something that, as a council, we cannot tolerate,” she said, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

At a meeting on Tuesday, councillors heard that the need of adults being referred to some of the council’s services are “increasing in complexity”.

There has been a “notable increase in the people who have autism and mental health needs”.

Nick Botterill, cabinet member for finance, remarked that the council had adequate cash reserves to cover the overspend.

But he added: “We don’t want to spend them in plugging gaps like this.”

Wiltshire Council’s leader, Richard Clewer, noted that the council regularly reports overspends in its quarter one review.

He said: “We’ve never failed to deliver a balanced budget at the end of the year.”

In the last financial year, the council ultimately ended up spending £14m less than projected.

But Mr Clewer warned that Wiltshire Council was facing the same financial pressure caused by adult social care that is “hitting the whole (local government) sector”.

Wiltshire’s Liberal Democrat leader, Ian Thorn, added that the overspend reflected the “exponential challenges” faced by the council through the county’s demographic shift.

By the year 2040, the number of Wiltshire residents aged 85 and over is expected to have increased by 87%, whilst the number under the age of 65 is expected to have decreased by 3%.