A higher than expected budget overspend of £39m from last year and fears of further overspending this year are causing concern at Enfield Civic Centre, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Tim Leaver is Enfield Council's cabinet member for finance — Tim Leaver is Enfield Council’s cabinet member for finance

Enfield Council’s cabinet member for finance has admitted the civic centre will be in a “difficult situation” unless additional funding is made available by the government over the next five years.

It comes as a series of new financial reports reveal significant ongoing cost pressures, and that last year’s budget overspend reached £39.4million, largely caused by unexpectedly high spending on temporary housing and adults and children’s services.

A “big issue” reported for the first quarter of 2024/25 was the loss of a housing benefit subsidy from the government, previously paid to councils by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). This now represents an £8m budget hole the council will need to fill by the end of the year.

Temporary housing costs also now have a projected £7.3m overspend for 2024/25, and children’s services £6.1m.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting yesterday (Wednesday 11th) Tim Leaver, cabinet member for finance, said the revenue forecast highlighted the “continued need” to “control the same costs”.

In response to the loss of the housing benefit subsidy he said officers were “working hard” to ensure services weren’t impacted.

Speaking on the added pressure of last year’s £39.4m budget overspend, which was signficantly higher than first calculated, Cllr Leaver said work was being done to use money made from asset sales and other capital reciepts, amounting to £23m, to “offset” the budget pressure.

He said: “This is a big issue identified in the first quarter, but there are no surprises, we have this new pressure [of housing benefit subsidy loss] and we all know this is the symptom of 14 years of very poor funding that hopefully we will be able to address.”

Looking ahead, another finance report states that the budget gap for 2024/25 will be dependent on a “significant number of variables” and that the formal update on the budget gap would be revised after 30th October, when Chancellor Rachel Reeves is due to deliver her first budget speech.

However, a £10.2m savings plan was still agreed by the cabinet, with around half of this cash coming from “income generation” and the other “service efficiency”.

Cllr Leaver said that while the change of government to Labour over the summer meant there should be positive changes in funding for local councils, there remained “uncertainty” over this.

“We have a £10.2m proposal of savings to ensure we can get to grips with funding we need and can ensure we can manage and deliver services residents want,” said Cllr Leaver.

“Without additional funding over the next five years we’ll be in a difficult situation.

“Councils [across the UK] in 2025/26 are forecasting £2.3billion in cost pressures and the following year it’s £3.9bn, so we’re not alone and we’ve taken steps by budgeting to address that.”

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