Tameside council is predicting a £15m budget shortfall by 2026/27 unless urgent action is taken. The town hall faces significant financial challenges in both adult and children’s services, being £5.4m and £3m over budget respectively. Housing and homelessness is also on course to run over budget, according to council papers.
Failed Savings Add to Pressures
The council failed to deliver projected savings from last year of £13.5m, which have been brought over into this financial year and adds to their cost ‘pressures’.
An urgent recovery plan was approved by town hall bosses on July 29 in order to balance the books. This scheme includes reducing non-essential expenditure and transforming departments to reduce overspends through ‘analytical reviews’, the town hall meeting was told.
Finance Boss: ‘Course Correction Underway’
Finance boss, Coun Hugh Roderick said: “It’s not like turning around a speedboat, more like a tanker. The wheel has been turned and our course correction is underway. We have a plan to address this. There is no single quick fix for financial pressures that have gone on for many years.”
Coun Roderick went on to give an example of children’s services reducing reliance on agency workers as one way of bringing down their costs.
Reserves at Risk if Recovery Falls Short
If none of these recovery plans work, much like last year, the council will once again have to dip into their finite reserves to balance the budget. The general fund balance (the safety net reserves) currently stands at £15.7m. This will reduce to almost nothing if the council doesn’t deliver on their savings recovery plan by March 31, 2027.
