Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance, Cllr Gary Hackwell, speaking about the Revenue Budget monitoring report released today, ahead of Cabinet next week, stated as follows:
"Today's revenue Budget monitoring report is deeply alarming. It comes after three years of Medway Council receiving exceptional financial support to balance the Budget, and the situation showing no signs of improving. At Budget in February, the Leader of the Opposition set out our significant concerns about the ambitious nature of the Budget for this financial year, and those concerns have come clear today.
A gap of £42m is not only deeply worrying, but demonstrates this Council faces a catastrophe if action is not taken quickly to resolve this pressure. Huge pressures in adult's social care, a worsening situation in children's services, temporary accommodation out of control, and financing costs that are spiralling. As an opposition, we have significant concerns about the administration's ability to deliver the £22m worth of savings, to close the gap to £26.7m. Combined with the exceptional financial support already in the Budget this year, it would still leave a gap of nearly £40m. It demonstrates a further top up of exceptional financial support will be needed this year, and then another next year, to avoid the Council issuing a Section 114 notice. All of this debt is then going to be passed to the new North Kent Unitary Authority.
The big issues facing local government remain the same - adults social care, children's services and temporary accommodation - all having catastrophic impacts on the Council's finances. Despite the new Prime Minister's warm words, it is action and financial support that the people of Medway need, and we now expect to see the administration not only taking the action to get its budget back under control, but together with their Labour Members of Parliament, request an immediate review of the Council's financial settlement by HM Government."
ENDS
