Cumberland Council: Austerity blamed for overspend

The budget was discussed during a meeting at the Civic Centre in Carlisle

Austerity and reduced central government funding have been blamed for the current state of Cumberland Council's finances.

The local authority is facing a predicted £29m overspend in the budget for a number of reasons, including increased demand on services.

Labour councillor Barbara Cannon said the council had not mismanaged the budget.

It comes as the local authority voted to increase councillors' allowances.

'Significant pressures'

During a council meeting on Tuesday independent councillor Robert Betton asked councillor Barbara Cannon how the "£29m black hole in the budget" would be tackled.

He also asked for reassurance that council tax would not rise "exponentially" because of "mismanagement of the budget".

But Ms Cannon said she rejected the premise of his question as, she said, the council had not mismanaged the budget.

She said the local authority had "inherited a challenging financial position" and added: "The local government reform (LGR) settlement left us with a £9m deficit from day one.

"We have significant demand pressures in Children's and Adult services, inflation is far higher that we have seen for some time and we have significant transition costs from the LGR process.

"This is in addition to years of underfunding of local government. Therefore, we have significant pressures this year."

She said that the administration was working hard with officers to find a solution and a comprehensive transformation programme was being developed.

However, councillor Betton said he feared that the council would find itself further in debt.

"Who is going to pay for all of this?" he said.

Ms Cannon replied that she had gone to a lot of trouble in recent weeks to spell out exactly how the budget was set every year.

"We will set the budget and you will be part of it," she said.