Rotherham Council slashes overspend and delivers £1.5m in support to struggling households

Officials have welcomed the turnaround as a step in the right direction, though the council still faces ongoing pressure to balance its budget.

The figures were presented in an interim finance report approved during a cabinet meeting on June 9, ahead of the full end-of-year accounts being published in July. The update also included details on the council’s efforts to support residents hit hardest by rising household costs.

In February, council officers warned that Rotherham was on track to overspend its 2024/25 budget by £3.1 million. But by the end of the financial year that gap had narrowed, thanks to tighter departmental spending, effective use of government grants, and savings on borrowing costs.

The largest cost pressures came from services for vulnerable children and adults. Children’s Services alone recorded a £5 million overspend, largely due to higher-than-expected demand for residential care placements. Adult social care also ran over budget by £6.2 million, partly due to staffing and care placement costs.

However, other departments managed to claw back savings. The regeneration and environment service saw its overspend shrink by £1.7 million due to better-than-expected income and lower costs for waste and school transport. Finance and customer services saved a further £1.1 million, helped by vacancies and reduced admin costs.

Treasury savings and the use of a £6.9 million contingency fund meant the council ended the year with a final overspend of just £300,000, much lower than feared.

The council had planned to make nearly £10 million in savings in 2024/25. About half of those savings were delivered, but there were shortfalls, particularly in children’s services, which managed only £1 million of its £5.8 million target. That gap will need to be addressed in the current financial year.

The council said delays in building new in-house care facilities and a spike in expensive, unplanned placements made it impossible to meet the original targets. A revised delivery plan is now being developed for 2025/26.

Alongside the finance update, cabinet also heard that the council tax support top up scheme is now underway for the current year. The scheme, approved in March, provides up to £126.12 in extra council tax relief for low-income households in a bid to ease the cost of living.

So far, £1.49 million in support has been awarded to 14,632 households. Of those, more than 12,000 have seen their bills reduced to zero.

The 2025/26 scheme is expected to cost between £1.7 million and £1.9 million, funded through a mix of the government’s household support fund and council reserves. Last year’s version of the scheme supported over 17,000 households.