Sheffield City Council faces serious budget deficit - councillor

Councillors were warned failure to elect a leader could mean senior officers running the authority

Sheffield City Council is facing a "serious budget deficit" which could result in government intervention, a senior councillor has warned.

Liberal Democrat leader Shaffaq Mohammed revealed the financial difficulties as the authority met to elect a new leader.

After lengthy negotiations the council, which is under no overall control, named Labour's Terry Fox as leader.

Mr Mohammed said further details would be revealed "in the next few weeks".

Following the 5 May elections, the council has 39 Labour councillors, 29 Lib Dems, 14 Greens, one Conservative and one Independent councillor.

At one stage on Wednesday it appeared the authority might be left without a leader after Mr Mohammed and Mr Fox went head-to-head, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The Green group voted against both candidates, resulting in a stalemate which was only resolved when Mr Mohammed withdrew from the contest.

Announcing his withdrawal Mr Mohammed said: "In the next few weeks you are going to hear how serious the budget deficit is, how serious our reserve levels are and I am not laying it on because all three leaders have been given this briefing earlier this week. 

"If we do not resolve our budget deficit then I kid you not there is real danger commissioners, appointed by a Conservative government, may come and take over, and I will never allow that while I am here. 

"So for the sake of Sheffield I told my colleagues that we will not be nominating myself, it's bigger than me."

Elections on 5 May saw no political party gain a majority on the council

Mr Fox thanked Mr Mohammed and said what had happened had been "upsetting and absolutely unforgivable".

"We called both other parties around the table earlier this week to try to hammer out a way forward.

"Nobody had to sign up to everything but a way forward we could work together to tackle the serious issues that are facing this council."

Sheffield City Council has switched from a leader and cabinet model to committee working, designed to give all councillors more say in how the city is run, following a referendum in 2021.

Each committee will be responsible for specific council business and their membership will be politically proportionate.

Labour will chair four, including finance, the Lib Dems three and the Greens two.

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