North Northamptonshire Council forecasts £9.4m overspend
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the financial pressures on the council were down to growing demands for statutory services, which were often subject to expensive outsourcing costs to independent providers.The council also heard there was a £2.7m overspend in adult services for residential and nursing care, staffing and social care transport.There was almost £2m pressure due to higher demand for the council's Home to School Transport service.Cheatley said the financial challenges facing the council were "a theme that we've obviously seen and had to accept over the last few years"."I am confident that the officers will continue to seek mitigations to provide efficiencies," he added.The predicted spend for the year represents a 2.9% increase on the authority's £405m budget, which the former Conservative administration set earlier this year.Reform UK took control of the council in the May local elections.The authority has set aside a contingency fund of just under £3m to combat "exceptional expenditure", which has not yet been used.It could be employed later in the year to help balance the books, but that it will look to achieve alternative mitigations and efficiencies first, the authority said.
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