Plymouth's budget forecast for £7.5 million overspend

Labour say numbers were inherited from Tories

Plymouth City Council denies it has a “black hole in the budget,” despite it  facing a forecast overspend of £7.5 million.

The Labour council says it is working hard to get its budget, inherited from the previous Conservative administration, in check and aims to balance the books by the end of the financial year.

Presenting a report for April to June 2023 to cabinet members, Cllr Mark Lowry, who is responsible for finance, said the council is facing pressures from children’s services (£2.8 million) notably home-to-school transport and high-cost children’s placements, people’s care packages (£1.2 million) and community connections dealing with homelessness (£2.4 million).

In addition there are inherited services costs of £1.5 million and the expense of three by-elections which were not budgeted to the tune of £80,000.

The council has enlisted the help of David Northey as head of finance, who has postponed his retirement to help it sort out its finances over the next few months.

“We still have nine months to go,” said Cllr Lowry. “This is not a black hole in the budget, it is forecasting of what would happen if the world stopped revolving today and that’s where we would be.  But obviously there is still a lot of work to be done and as is the requirement of this council we have to provide a balanced budget by the end of the year, which I am sure we will achieve.”

He said homelessness is a considerable increase in cost, but it is a national issue. He said there would be reviews to understand exactly what is happening in Plymouth and the problems to be addressed.

The cabinet supported a capital budget of £556 million for the next five years, which will now go to the full council for final approval.

New projects coming forward totalling £7.5 million include:

• Theatre Royal Car park solar scheme (£199,000)
• improvements to Central Park (£60,000)
• Derriford Community Park – phase 1 biodiversity (£107,000)
• Plymouth and South Devon community forest (£25,000)
• Derriford District Centre (£1.03 million)
• highways projects street furniture replacements, tennis improvements £3.71 million)
• Local Authority Housing Fund (£1.5 million) which will provide accommodation for refugees and temporary accommodation for people experiencing homelessness.