Latest overspend reported to cabinet among the best in the North West

At the end of 2023-24 financial year, the outturn position is an overspend of £5.220m, which represents 0.5% of the revenue net budget.

This is lower than the projected overspend of £5.8m reported in the previous quarterly finance report and has been achieved thanks to strong financial management and delivery of savings.

County Councillor Alan Vincent, Deputy Leader of Lancashire County Council and cabinet member for Resources, HR and Property, said: "Despite having to deal with inflation and increased demand for our services during 2023-24, we have managed to continue to provide our excellent work force with the means to deal with those challenges and been able to contain our overspend to just over £5 million.

"Many other councils – even without pressures of adult social care and children's social care – have not managed to keep their overspends below that figure.

"I can say with confidence that this will be among the best financial outturn for any upper tier authority in the North West."

Adult services and education and children's services continue to be the largest areas of spend within the council's revenue budget.

The biggest challenge in adult services budget continues to be around balancing overspends in care packages and underspends in staffing.

Speaking at County Hall on Thursday, Cllr Vincent told councillors that work to provide county council-run care homes is a "massive priority to me."

Work will continue to review the ongoing challenges and the budget gap. The level of financial reserves held by the council remains robust are sufficient to support the projected budget shortfall over the medium term.

At the meeting on Thursday 11 July, cabinet approved the transfer from the transitional reserve for the 2023/24 overspend of £5.220m. Councillors also approved the revised list of savings for 2024/25 and beyond.

You can read the cabinet report here.