Whopping £7m Bedford Borough Council budget overspend predicted after 'very challenging year'

A whopping £7m Bedford Borough Council budget overspend has been predicted after a 'very challenging year'.

An increase in demand for borough council services and rising costs has led to a predicted the big overspend in the current financial year, a meeting heard.

The portfolio holder for finance, councillor Michael Headley (LibDems, Putnoe) told Bedford Borough Council’s executive (Wednesday, November 23) that it has been a “very challenging year”.

“We are dealing with inflationary pressures, particularly around energy costs, as well as increasing demand for services,” he said.

“The [2022/2023 Revenue and Capital Trends report] forecasts a £7 million overspend in the current year.

“We are not alone in this, as councils across the country are facing these challenges and you regularly read about them in the local government press.

“However, that doesn’t change the situation that we are facing right here in the borough.

“Across the council measures are being taken to control and limit expenditure wherever possible to help with these current pressures.

“We also propose that around £5 million of revenue funding is redirected from supporting the capital programme to supporting the revenue budget overspend.

“We have an extremely strong record of managing our capital programme efficiently, so this does allow us this headroom to make this change,” he said.

“You can contrast that with some other councils that have borrowed recklessly and at least one is now effectively facing bankruptcy.

“We will continue to keep costs under control for the rest of this year with the aim of limiting the forecast overspend,” he said.

Bedford mayor, Dave Hodgson said: “I was at a meeting last week where I don’t think anybody was predicting less than a £10 million deficit.

“So we have a large deficit that we are looking at, we’re trying to close the gap next year, but we have a gap.

“But this is a situation that we should not be put into by the government,” he said.

Councillor Louise Jackson (Labour, Harpur) said: “I think this council has consistently done a really good job in the face of some really difficult challenges, but I can’t see this improving any time soon.

“It’s really worrying to hear the mood music from the government ahead of whatever they do give to us as when we get our allocation for next year.

“They can’t keep expecting local government to limp along, and I say this a lot and I’m going to say it again, from one little pot of money to another, little bungs here and there to try and get through the next crisis.

“We’re in crisis because they’re not funding as properly and until that’s recognised and the government wakes up to the range of services that we provide and the necessity of those then this is just going to keep getting worse.

“But the officers continually do a fantastic job delivering all of these [services] against such a backdrop and I just commend them all for it, ” she said.