COUNCIL’S OVERSPEND OF £10MILLION COULD LEAVE LOCAL AUTHORITY IN RISKY POSITION

Savings might be used to help dig the Isle of Wight Council out of a £10million overspend this financial year, its finance director has revealed. However, Head of Finance Chris Ward has also warned dipping into the local authority’s savings could leave it short next year and he says the cash would need to be replaced. Adult social care services, home-to-school transport, growing numbers of children in care and the Medina and The Heights leisure centres are areas that have required more money than was originally budgeted for. On Tuesday night, Mr Ward revealed the budget is predicted to be over £10million short. He said the gap could be covered by savings and the COVID-19 contingency fund, bringing the overspend down to £3.2million. Further cash could come from the corporate contingency fund, but it would mean any ‘risks’ later in the financial year would not be covered, Mr Ward said. He said the council could use further reserves to balance the books at the end of the year, if required. Mr Ward warned an overspend was likely to impact next year’s finances as well and said it had not been accounted for in the Isle of Wight Council’s medium-term financial plans. Conservative councillor, Chris Quirk, said carrying an overspend was not sustainable and said a fair funding review was needed, to give the council more cash. The long-awaited review will not happen in this parliamentary session, said Mr Ward, but he hoped the Government’s Autumn statement, the local government finance statement and adult social care funding would provide more council cash.