Kirklees Council pledges to do 'everything' to avoid bankruptcy

Kirklees Council said its financial position was improving, but there was more work still to be done

A local authority in West Yorkshire has vowed to avoid declaring itself effectively bankrupt this year.

Kirklees Council said its financial position was improving, despite needing to save £47m before next April.

The council's forecast overspend for 2023-24 has reduced from £20.3m in July to £16.1m in October, a meeting heard.

Graham Turner, cabinet member for finance and regeneration, said they would do "everything within our power" to avoid issuing a section 114 notice.

While a council cannot technically go bankrupt, the declaration of a section 114 notice signifies an authority cannot balance its books.

Once such a notice is issued, a council cannot incur new spending unless its finance officer permits it to do so and the council leadership must then meet within 21 days to discuss how to bring its expenditure in line with funding.

'Absolute worst outcome'

Councillor Turner told a meeting of Kirklees Council's overview and management scrutiny on Tuesday that it would be an "absolute disaster" for residents if it issued a section 114 notice.

He said: "We will do absolutely everything within our power to make sure we don't because that would be the absolute worst outcome for this local authority and its residents."

He acknowledged Kirklees Council was "not where it wants to be" in terms of the cuts and that "painful" decisions had been made.

Kirklees Council's chief financial officer, Isabel Brittain, told the meeting behind-the-scenes work was being carried out to reduce spend, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Ms Brittain said: "The team and myself are trying to control non-essential spends, we're holding vacancies open and at this point in time, we are very positive we will end this year in a better position than we are at the moment."

Though some areas like children and families were still said to be "of concern", every council directorate had improved its position over the past quarter, the meeting heard.

Councillors were also told that other cost-saving measures were also being explored, such as increasing parking fees, closing care homes for people with dementia and reducing the number of council-run leisure centres.