Liverpool City Council error put extra £2.2m on schools energy bill

Mr Logan told councillors the Labour-led authority the "political will" was there to try and get the funds to schools

Schools in Liverpool are collectively facing an additional £2.2m utility bill following the city council's energy contract error.

Mistakes at Liverpool City Council have led to millions of pounds being added to the authority's energy costs.

Councillor Tom Logan told an education and skills committee meeting on Tuesday the authority was working "to get the money across" to schools.

However, councillor Richard Kemp said it could see the "robbing" of budgets.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the meeting was told the additional amount faced by city schools now stood at £2.2m, which was lower than the original £2.8m estimate revealed by Mayor Joanne Anderson at a meeting held in November to discuss the council's £72m budget shortfall.

Mr Logan told councillors the Labour-led authority the "political will" was there to try and get the funds to schools, but it was not easy "to get the money across".

'Appalling mistakes'

The meeting heard the council had identified where the money to pay the shortfall will come from and was working with the Department for Education to find a legal method to get it to schools as quickly as possible.

However, Mr Kemp, who leads the opposition Liberal Democrat group, said the council needed to consider carefully where it would find the money.

"We are already facing £73m of cuts [and] some of those savings might not be achievable," he said.

"Supporting schools to make up for the appalling mistakes of the council can only mean us robbing budgets aimed at the most needy members of the community or defying the government and reducing balances to a level that the commissioners would find unsatisfactory," he added.

Mr Logan said interim chief executive Theresa Grant and interim finance director Ian Duncan had been working with the city's legal department to get the financing sorted.

Director of children's services Steve Reddy said the biggest chunk of savings will be £12.6m from children's social care

The meeting was also told finding almost a quarter of the budget shortfall from children's services would be a "big ask".

Setting out how the council would make almost £19m in savings from his department, director of children's services Steve Reddy said the biggest chunk will be £12.6m from children's social care services, with underspends already confirmed and a reduction of budget growth now expected not to be needed.

A further £2.5m will be found each year for the next three years through a reduction in private or independent residential children's home places, as the council hopes to open four of its own children's homes in 2023.

Committee chairwoman Barbara Murray said having to find almost £19m in the coming year was a "big ask" for children's services and education.