Leeds City Council overspend forecast approaches £40m

A financial crisis facing Leeds City Council has continued as the expected overspend for this year rose to almost £40m.

Transcript

00:00Despite restrictions on staff travel costs and tighter controls on overtime and agency staff,

00:06Leeds City Council are continuing to face a financial crisis,

00:10with a new report suggesting the expected overspend for this financial year is approaching £40 million.

00:17A complete recruitment freeze is now in place except for frontline jobs,

00:22including social work and some income-generating posts.

00:26Additional, more stringent cost controls are also being introduced from this month,

00:30with the forecast deficit for 2025-2026 up by more than £10 million between August and September.

00:38The authority says the costs of social care and keeping at-risk children safe

00:42were two main factors behind the increase in its overspend position.

00:47To cut costs, it's been working to reduce the number of youngsters

00:50living in costly residential placements outside the city.

00:53The biggest overspend was on the Children and Families budget,

00:57up £12.8 million since August to just under £29 million.

01:02The Adults and Health budget is also predicting a £15.1 million overspend,

01:08up £2.7 million since August.

01:11It comes as the authority recently approved the sale of a unique car number plate

01:15used by Lord Mayors of Leeds for more than 120 years.

01:19Funds generated from the U1 plate sale are set to go back into the Council budget

01:24to help protect important services.

01:26The U1 plate will be replaced on the Lord Mayors Civic Vehicle by the plate L6EDS,

01:32a plate also owned by the Council, but which is substantially less valuable.

01:37Meanwhile, the latest finance report will be discussed

01:39at the Council's Executive Board meeting on Wednesday 19th November.