Issue - meetings

To consider the Budget report on the Council’s financial position at the end of Quarter 3 of 2025/26.

The report included with this item was first published as part of the agenda papers for the Cabinet meeting on 10th March 2026.

Cllr Dana Carlin, Cabinet Member for Finance & Corporate Services, introduced the report for this item, which provided an update on the Council’s financial position at the end of Quarter 3 of 2025/26, and made the following points:

·       The overall position had improved since Quarter 1 when a £34m overspend had been projected. This had fallen to £23.4m at the end of Quarter 2 and had now been reduced further to around £19m at the end of Quarter 3.

·       There were around £8m of historic parking arrears and, while this was disappointing, it was not a service pressure that would impact on the following year’s budget.

·       The improvements in the service overspend were mainly in the areas of Adult Services and Temporary Accommodation.

·       There had been an improvement in the Housing Revenue Account with reduced overall expenditure of £1.3m, due to improved contractor performance management and lower capital financing costs.

·       Capital spend had been reduced and this would mean reduced revenue expenditure in future years. Capital spend was challenged throughout the year to ensure that anitwould deliver savings or income or was essential/emergency work.

·       The government had recognised the need for additional funding for Boroughs such as Haringey with an additional £25m in core spending over the next three financial years. There had been increases in areas such as homelessness grants and the government had also committed to fully covering the cost of SEND services in future which would help.

·       It was understood that the monthly financial reports received by officers had shown further improvements in month 10.

·       She acknowledged the hard work of officers in achieving these improvements but noted that there was a lot more to do for the Council to get to a point of financial sustainability.

Taryn Eves, Corporate Director of Finance & Resources, added the following points:

·       The £19m of projected overspend was expected to be reduced further by £8m of uncommitted corporate contingency. She clarified that the projected overspend was in addition to the £37m of Exceptional Financial Support

·       Certain factors had been included at the Quarter 3 stage rather than at the end of the financial year in order to provide a more accurate forecast. These factors included bed debts provision, use of reserves and external finance.

·       The improvements in the 2025/26 position could be partly attributed to the additional controls that had been put in place, further details of which were provided in Appendix 10. There had also been less volatility in the second half of the year and more accurate forecasting.

·       The Council was still carrying some risks in areas including parking, adult social care debt and commercial property.

·       The delivery of savings was still not being fully achieved and so this needed to be the focus of attention next year.

Cllr Carlin and Taryn Eves then responded to questions from the Committee:

·       Cllr White observed that much of the improvements in the 2025/26 position appeared to be due to the reduction in demand rather than reductions in price and asked about the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 98