By Jason Lewis, Local Democracy Reporter
Cash-strapped Southampton City Council is expected to be “back to normal” for the first time in three years when it comes to its budget proposals.
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The interim chief executive of Southampton City Council said the plans for 2025/26 will be balanced without the use of reserves or government support.
For 2023/24, a contribution of £21million of reserves was used and there was still a £1million overspend at the end of March last year despite significant cost control measures.
The current year had a structural gap of just shy of £40million, with a reliance on a government package of exceptional financial support to set a balanced budget.
Efforts to deliver savings are forecast to limit the amount that will need to be borrowed to somewhere in the region of £20million.
A report written by interim chief executive Andrew Travers in October said the path to setting a legal budget for 2025/26 without further government help was “extremely narrow”, despite identifying potential recurring savings of £50million through transformation
Mr Travers was much more optimistic when he gave an update at a governance committee meeting on Monday, January 13.
He said: “At the most simple possible level, the budget for the current year had a £40million hole in it.
“The budget that we are going to be proposing for next year (25/26) will be balanced.
“There will be no use of reserves, no gap.
“It will be back to normal in terms of how you are supposed to set a budget.”
Conservative member for Harefield ward, and former Bitterne Park councillor Cllr Rob Harwood said he was pleased to hear this assurance.
He said this was “at odds” to the senior officer’s October report.
Mr Travers said: “In terms of what I said in the report, when I wrote this in October that’s what I felt, that’s what I saw.
“I think it was a narrow path but I think we got there.
“The part of the pattern that went better than I thought was the settlement from government, which was more generous than we were anticipating, significantly more, and I think the difference between now and October is that.
“I think if you go back to October we had a gap of about £7million (for 2025/26) that we reported to cabinet based on our assumptions about settlement.
“There has been a few things going up and down but broadly speaking the thing that went better than I anticipated was the settlement.”
Councillors are due to hold the annual budget setting full council meeting on Wednesday, February 26.
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