Bexley Council is forecasting just a £2.2 million overspend on its budget this year, far less than some other London boroughs.
Neighbouring Greenwich is currently staring at a £45.1m budget gap and Bromley an £18m one, while Hillingdon Council has “basically run out of money” according to one of its cabinet members.
An updated report on Bexley’s finances was presented to its cabinet on October 23 in which it was revealed that the council had actually managed to reduce its forecasted overspend by £68k.
The authority now predicts it will be £2.184m over budget at the end of the financial year. As with most councils across the country, the main pressure on Bexley’s budget continues to be adult and children’s social care.
Cllr David Leaf, Bexley’s Cabinet Member for Resources, who is set to become Bexley Council’s new leader next month, welcomed the news of the reduced overspend and praised the work officers had done to save money.
He said: “This is an improved position on the previous monitoring and that’s partly due to the work that’s underway containing spend and tracking budgets quite closely. Our position is not uncommon in local government. There are other councils, particularly in London, that are forecasting far larger overspends than we are.
“Although it’s always frustrating when there’s an overspend, I think it is a credit to the work that we have underway that our position is stronger than a number of other local authorities, including other authorities who receive considerably more government grant than we do.
“God only knows what they do with that money, because certainly if we had some of that money and the level of funding that they have, we would certainly be able to do things a little bit better and differently here. But we do very well with the resources that we have.”
Cllr Leaf said the council was working to resolve and address the areas in its budget that were under significant pressure. The council is hoping to save £6.3m through various mitigations, over half a million more than was initially forecast after an annual review of its services.
Cllr Chris Taylor, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, noted a reduction in spending of £325k in the council’s fostering budget. He said: “I think that’s just really a testament to the innovation and investment we’ve put into our forester carers in Bexley by being able to grow the numbers and also upskill them in terms of the type of children that they can take on.
He praised the council for being able to save money in this area while still offering “really good quality care” for Bexley children and families using fostering services.
