Windsor and Maidenhead council working to fix 'shocking' financial situation

Windsor and Maidenhead council is taking steps to address the ‘shocking situation’ it is in financially, it has said.

In a meeting last night (July 27), the Royal Borough’s cabinet heard how it ‘must address’ a £3.7million budget gap.

One of its biggest overspends is £2.8million on adult social care – mainly from care of elderly people and staff costing.

There are smaller underspends in children’s services, but pressures remain on special educational needs provision, transport costs and legal costs.

Deputy leader and cabinet member for finance, Councillor Lynne Jones (OWRA, Old Windsor), said there is a risk to savings and there could always be ‘an unanticipated higher cost placement.’

Going against trend, there is an underspend on staff in core services due to vacancies – but ‘although this is saving money, it's not a positive for the council,’ said Cllr Jones.

All it means is that services are understaffed – which can ‘be seen in the services we are able to provide'.

“We need to properly transform our services and for that we need to be fully staffed,” said Cllr Jones.

In the past, there have been ‘cuts to services and the officer core’ to save money.

“These were short term policies that do not bring about a financially stable council,” said Cllr Jones.

She said that over the next two years, the council needs to maximise opportunities to invest or save, and maximise use of assets to reduce the reliance on cuts.

This reliance on cuts is ‘not something this cabinet wants to do,’ she said.

There is a large amount of external pressure affecting the Borough’s finances.

Andrew Vallance, head of finance, said the council ‘wouldn't have a gap if it wasn’t for the increase in interest levels and inflation'.

He highlighted that contract inflation has reached more than £5.5million.

“If [these levels] were back down to where they were a year or so ago, we’d have a balanced budget already,” he said.

The council continues to struggle with its council tax history. The cabinet heard that the council ‘falls further behind every year’ as a result of council tax cuts 10-15 years ago.

It means that the maximum increase in council tax (2.99 per cent) has less effect on the Royal Borough’s finances than other local authorities, which are working from a higher base.

Other pressures on the finances include a higher cost recycling and higher contract costs.

In addition, the council’s reserves are ‘insufficient to absorb financial pressure in the next few years,’ the cabinet heard.

Stephen Evans, chief executive for the Royal Borough, said the council ‘will need to change the way it does things.’

“Otherwise the authority will run out of money over the next few years,” he said. “The next 12 to 24 months will be critical to the council's sustainability.”

He added that it ‘must build back capacity in core services’ and it was ‘essential’ the council looked at ways to bring borrowing down.

Leader of the council Simon Werner described this as ‘a pretty shocking situation for the council to be in’ and an ‘appalling legacy’ left by the previous administration.

Cllr Werner said there were ‘black holes’ in the former administration’s February budget, including failing to take into account inflation during the timeframe of the budget, making it inaccurate ‘from the moment it was passed'.

He also claimed the former council also underestimated the impacts of reduced car park incomes and adult service increased spends.

Though daily parking tickets are doing well at generating income, season tickets are struggling, the cabinet heard.

However, he was keen to highlight that the situation is ‘not all doom and gloom’.

“People voted for us to clear up the many messes [of the former administration] and this is the most important mess we must clear up,” Cllr Werner said.

Work is already underway to fix the issues – and Mr Evans said he is ‘confident progress is being made'.

Cllr Jones added that the situation is ‘difficult but not impossible’.

“We may not see all the changes we would like to happen as fast as residents would like,” she said.