Lincolnshire County Council is set to overspend its revenue budget by £4.7m during the first quarter of the financial year, a report has revealed.
Details due to go before members of the council’s Executive on Tuesday also show the schools’ budget overspend of £2m.
“At this early stage of the financial year (March to June) the general fund revenue budget is forecast to overspend by £4.7m (0.7 per cent of the net budget),” says the report to members.
The financial planning for the county authority for 25/6 and beyond has already started.
“It should be noted that most demand and economic-led challenges are sectoral and not specific to Lincolnshire, and is partly why the Government provided additional resource to the sector in the final settlement for 2024/25,” the report adds.
“Based on quarter one financial forecast data, the cost of delivering services is forecast to have significantly increased in some areas, in excess of he budget limit.”
Transport, waste and children’s services are outlined to be above budget, but a forecast underspend elsewhere will offset some of it.
Higher than expected costs also came dealing with green waste and mixed dry recycling.
Increasing public sector pay above the current budget is also noted as a ‘further risk to the position.’
“The current Local Government pay offer is for a flat increase of £1,290 for full time staff, or 2.5 per cent for those where £1,290 equates to less than 2.5 per cent,” the report says.
“Based on quarter one financial forecast date, the cost of delivering services is forecast to have significantly increased in some areas, in excess of the budget limit.”
The council does hold a core contingency of £6m for the current financial year, a revised figure during budget setting.
“Based on the current overspend forecast, the council has mitigations in place via the contingency which would cover the current position,” the report says
“Among the risks identified is volatility within demand led services.”
Despite the pressures, the council’s financial resilience has been assessed and remains ‘relatively strong’.
The council has a total spending power of £654.1m and the forecast overspend is less than one per cent of that.
Cost pressures include an overspend of 75 per cent on the Education Psychology Service within children’s education. The requests for assessment have risen by almost a third.
One of the largest pressures is home to school transport at £4.781m due to increased prices and activity.
A £3.2m overspend on waste services includes £1m to increased energy from waste tonnage.
