Pembrokeshire County Council is facing a predicted overspend in its annual budget of nearly £3m, with a moratorium on all non-essential expenditure still in force, senior councillors heard.
Members of Pembrokeshire County Council’s Cabinet, meeting on September 9, heard a report on the quarter one figures for the 2024-25 budget, highlighting an expected overspend of £2.9m by the end of the financial year.
A year ago, that q1 overspend – for the 2023-24 budget – was predicted at £4.8m.
The budget for 2024-25 was approved by council on March 7. This is the first budget monitoring report for 2024-25.
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A report for Cabinet members stated: “The approved revenue net expenditure budget for 2024-25 is £303.5m. This budget was set against a backdrop of increased level of demand, complexity and cost of packages within our School ALN provision, Children’s Services, Adult Services and Homelessness.
“This increase in demand, complexity and cost of packages has continued into 2024-25 with material projected overspends in each of these areas totalling £5.3m.
“Although work is being undertaken to try to reduce the cost of packages, it should be noted that these demand levels are projected to continue into 2025-26 and future years, creating further additional permanent budget pressures that will either need to be met through additional budget savings, income generation or increased council tax.”
The projected outturn at quarter one of 2024-25 is £306.4m, representing a projected overspend of £2.9m.
The report before members, presented by Cabinet Member for Corporate Finance and Efficiencies Cllr Joshua Beynon also detailed the medium term financial plan, with longer-term financial pressures for the council.
The report also highlighted the high cost of out-of-county in-care placements for children’s services, with the authority due to open up its first in-county residential home for children later this year.
“The majority of the Children’s Services pressures continue to pertain to the high costs of residential placements that we have to arrange in order to safely meet complexity of need and fulfil statutory responsibilities.
“Our Children’s Services commissioning team continue to mitigate this pressure through reviews of existing provision and shaping a market of more locally based provision, which aligns with the Welsh Government’s proposed legislation for the elimination of profit from the provision of children’s care.”
It said adult care and services were also facing pressure: “Complexity of need continues to feature within adult services as can be seen with the increase in demand and complexity of residents requiring nursing and residential care placements.
“From a housing perspective, the number of individuals in temporary accommodation overall has reduced from the previous quarter but the numbers within B&B accommodation remains high.”
Members backed a recommendation to note the report and the moratorium on all non-essential expenditure which is in force, and for the senior leadership team and appropriate Cabinet members to implement in-year savings measures to address the projected overspend for 2024-25.
Members also agreed to note similar measures to “identify potential savings to assist in addressing the indicative budget gap of £31.4 million for 2025-26 and £78.2 million across the period of the Medium-Term Financial Plan”.