Lancashire County Council will have to find what it has described as “significant savings” in the coming years in order to bridge a ballooning budget deficit.
The growing gap has been caused by factors which, according to a report to cabinet members, are “outside [of] the council’s control” - namely, a challenging combination, common to all local authorities, of spiralling inflation, a higher than expected pay rise for local government workers and increasing demand for adult and children’s services.
Labour opposition group leader Azhar Ali noted that the report assumed minimal change to the amount of money the authority will receive from central government over the next two years and called for the county council to “lobby government to look at the difficulties and challenges that we have in Lancashire, in particular”.
The chasm that has opened up in County Hall’s coffers is not entirely unexpected. The authority has long stressed the uncertainty shrouding its financial future as a result of repeated short-term funding settlements from the government - covering just one year at a time - along with unpredictability surrounding demand for adult and children’s services in the wake of the pandemic.
During 2021/22, the authority undershot its budget by £30m, but it is predicting a £17.7m overspend for the current financial year.
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