Wiltshire Council £10m less in the red than previously forecast

Latest Covid forecast shows Wiltshire Council is nearly £10m less in the red than previously thought.

Wiltshire Council is predicting a £27.006m overspend for quarter one, which it said is a £9.747m improvement on the forecast made in May of £36.753m.

However, it was also reported that the estimated total gross financial impact of coronavirus for the council is £134m – an improvement of £6.3m on the estimate given to government in June.

This figure accounts for loss of income, additional spending and changes made to the council’s plans.

The amount is offset against the £96m in grants the council has received from the government and an estimated £3m in CCG contributions relating to hospital discharges.

So the estimated shortfall in council finances related to coronavirus is estimated to be £38m.

It is also estimated that further government funding will be made available to the local authority to offset income losses made during the toughest period of the nationwide lockdown.

To help councils with losses made from council tax and business rates, the government has proposed to spread these across three years. Although specific details on how this will work have not yet been specified.

Currently, the revenue budget is predicted to overspend by £5.9m by the end of the 2020/21 financial year.

This year the council was aiming to save £14.682m, however the response to coronavirus has seen this put on the back burner. “Quite rightly,” Cllr Pauline Church commented.

In her report to cabinet, Cllr Church, cabinet member for finance, procurement and commercial investment, said that 49 per cent of those savings have been assessed as delivered, on track to being delivered or an alternative alternate saving identified.

“The status of the undelivered savings will be considered as part of the financial recovery in future year financial planning processes to ensure the budget remains robust and deliverable,” she said.

Questions were also put to cabinet about the county’s Covid recovery plan as council bosses discussed its core aspects going forward.

CEO Terence Herbert said the council was taking a different approach to recovery than some other authorities.

The aim of Wiltshire’s recovery programme is to learn from the response to Covid-19 and ‘emerge leaner and stronger, particularly given our forecast financial position this year’.

The report said that there would be an ‘inevitable ongoing knock-on impact’ to the council’s ability to delivery services to residents.

The council also says it is in the process of developing a new Climate Strategy to meet its ‘challenging’ target to become carbon neutral by 2030.

The report to the cabinet meeting said: “As part of developing the strategy, every recovery theme will need to consider the environmental impact of its activities and identify opportunities to contribute to a green recovery.

“The council will be taking part in the Wiltshire Climate Alliance virtual conference this month, to discuss a green recovery in Wiltshire, and will carefully consider the suggestions that come out of these discussions.”

In terms of Wiltshire’s care homes, £1.6m of Council support has been made available to care providers for additional Covid-19 costs and a further £2.3m of Infection Prevention and Control funding.

The Department of Health and Social Care has ruled out wholescale testing to care homes. That means care home for the over-65s and those with dementia have been prioritised – currently, Wiltshire’s test rate in care homes is at 84 per cent.

Lucy Townsend, the interim corporate director for people, said that Wiltshire Council was expecting the full opening of all primary, secondary, special and alternative provision schools in September.

Cllr Laura Mayes wanted to reassure families that ‘everything had been done’ in schools to make them as safe as possible.

“There are serious contingency plans as well to ensure, if there are local outbreaks, that they can cover those,” said the cabinet member for children, education and skills.

“The message we want to get to parents is ‘please be confident to send your children back because nothing’s more important than being in school’.”

By: Matthew McLaughlin, Local Democracy Reporting Service