West Sussex County Council may have to take money from its reserves to balance its books at the end of 2023/24.
The news was shared during a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday (March 12) where members were told that, at the end of December, an overspend of £2.773m was being forecast.
Should the position remain unchanged, the money is likely to be taken from the Budget Management Reserve, which was set up to manage risks and
uncertainties.
At the end of September 2023, the forecast was an overspend of £4.4m.
Jeremy Hunt, cabinet member for finance said the council was ‘turning over every stone’ to try to find the money to make the use of reserves unnecessary.
Looking at the various portfolios, the biggest overspend – £24m – was forecast for children and young people, learning & skills.
This was put down to the increasing demand and cost of placements for children cared for by the council, though the number of children fell from 768 at the end of September to 750 at the end of December.
Mr Hunt said: “This is still slightly above our budgeted numbers but hopefully it is a sign that the preventative work we’re doing is bearing fruit.
“But, of course, only time will tell.”
The forecast overspend for adult services stands at £5.7m, and for the environment & climate change portfolio it is £2.5m.
But the highways & transport portfolio predicted a £2.1m underspend, which was due in part to fewer people making concessionary fare journeys on public transport, and the energy costs for the Street Lighting PFI being lower than expected.
When it came to the £26.8m budget savings targeted for 2023/24 – £17.2m of which was carried over from previous years – £15.9m were either delivered or on track to be achieved.
Another £1.5m were judged to be at risk but expected to be achieved, and £9.4m were judged to be unachievable.
Mr Hunt said: “We are turning over every stone to try to find that [£2.773m] of the projected overspend so that hopefully we can look to balance our budget without having to dip into our reserves.
“I know all teams are looking really hard. Towards the year end, often a few things do pop out so we’ll keep everything crossed.”
