Councils will continue having to take difficult financial decisions unless “fundamental” changes are made, says a finance chief

Calderdale Council’s Cabinet member for Resources, Coun Silvia Dacre, was responding to concerns about overspending continuing into the future.

Coun Steven Leigh (Con, Ryburn) said each quarter had shown projected overspending through 2023-24 in most of the council’s departments.

It was now considering budgets for next year.

“Continuing this overspending and filling the gaps with the use of our rock-bottom reserves is not prudent.

“What is being done to ensure this overspending does not continue unabated next year and every subsequent year?” he said.

Coun Dacre (Lab, Todmorden) said proposals for 2024-25 were informed by the current position on spend and the cost of providing vital services, with financial planning a continuous process including work to ensure savings and budget challenges made.

Budgets had been increased to reflect some underlying pressures while efforts were being focused on transformation through redesigning services to head off more costly specialist interventions that otherwise might be needed down the line, she said.

Coun Dacre said all councils with statutory social care responsibilities were in the same position across the country and needed to be addressed nationally.

“It is widely acknowledged that local authorities’ funding model is broken and until this fundamental issue is addressed, local authorities like ours, with a responsibility or social care, will struggle to manage their budgets.

“If the need locally continues to increase, the council will need to take more difficult decisions in order to prioritise spend to support the most vulnerable residents,” she said.

Councillors have previously been told spending on statutory adults’ and children’s social care packages now takes up 70 per cent of Calderdale’s revenue – day-to-day spending – budget.