Members of Swindon Borough Council have been invited to hear from council bosses about the state of the authority’s finances next week.

The session on Wednesday evening is not open to either the press or the public, but we do know a little about what the leaders of the administration will tell councillors.

At the September 11 cabinet meeting the member for finance Councillor Kevin Small told his colleagues that the expected shortfall in this year’s budget has  increased, with the spending gap, at the end of July, predicted to be £9.1m buy the e4nd of March 2025.

He said: “This is a challenging position for the council which is being driven by a combination of continued increases in costs of and demand for services across Adult and Children services, homelessness and the waste service. This forecast also reflects the impact of slippage and non-delivery that is being forecast against the savings plans.”

He told his colleagues that “urgent work is required across the council to identify actions to mitigate this overspend.”

Cllr Small said there was a £1.5, contingency in this year’s budget and it would be possible to move £4m from cash reserves to plug at least some of the gap – but that any such move should be kept to a minimum in order to maintain the reserves for future use.

Since then council officers have been told of nine specific measures brought in to save money and plug the budget gap: an immediate recruitment freeze on all recruitment to all posts, a review of all existing temporary worker arrangements, and no extensions of temporary positions.

Overtime will not be paid unless it is critical, there will be no new contracts, and there is a freeze of training that costs the council money, as well as travel and accommodation outside Swindon and there is no hospitality or catering for meetings.

Chief Executive Sam Mowbray told staff to “challenge themselves” over spending and saving money.

That picture will have been affected by the announcement of extra funding for local government by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves in the first budget of Prime Minister KeirStarmer’s first budget.

Ms Reeves announced an increase in the central government grant of £1.3bn across the country, which is expected to work out as an increase in the grant for Swindon Borough Council of between £4.3 and £4.5million.

There was also an announcement of an increase in funding for education for children with special needs and disabilities of £1bn. That is expected to bring around £3m to Euclid Street for that purpose.

Cllr Small told the cabinet meeting last month that the planning for the next budget assumed that Council Tax would go up by five per cent next year as it has for the last couple of years.

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