Budget: Sheffield Council’s overspend increases by another million pounds as it faces cliff edge

In its latest financial update a senior councillor said the council was estimating an overspend of £21.7 million this year – this is up from £20.4 million last month and £19 million the month before.

Council officers said this is largely from social care, the effects of a proposed pay increase and repairs and maintenance.

Out of reserves

Last month, Ryan Keyworth, director of finance, said the council had run out of reserves – £25 million set aside to manage budget overspends.

He said: “The overspends that we are seeing are almost all related to the delivery of budget implementation plans, so exactly the challenges we foresaw when we put the £25 million reserves on one side to manage risk but nonetheless, to have them spoken for at this relatively early stage in the year is not an ideal place to be to put it mildly.”

He added: “This is the only year we are going to be able to put aside £25 million in reserves.

“That means the budget implementation plans for 2023/24 that we are currently developing are going to have to be far more robust and to a much higher standard in terms of the cash delivery that is expected.

“It’s quite likely that I’m going to reject some of the budget implementation plans as they come forward simply on that basis.”

The council is working through the summer due to the seriousness of its financial position.

Councillor Shaffaq Mohammed, leader of Sheffield Liberal Democrats and member of the strategy and resources committee, previously said there were £15 million worth of savings offered last year that Labour and the Green Party decided not to take that are now likely to be on the table again soon. This included cutting expensive home packages for social care.

He said: “Basically we are now in the situation that without major reductions in spends or finding different ways of generating income we are going to be in trouble.

“We are not even halfway through and the alarm bells are being sounded.”