SWANSEA: Council orders ‘severe spending restrictions’ three months into the year, and one service is carrying almost all the damage

Swansea Council has ordered “severe spending restrictions” across its services after they overshot the budget by £13.7m in the first three months of the financial year.

The measures, revealed in a first-quarter monitoring report going to Cabinet on Wednesday (16 September), include an immediate vacancy freeze and a block on spending that is not already committed, required by law or needed to keep services safe.

Social Services carries almost all of the pressure. The directorate is forecast to finish £13.6m over budget, and adult care is the single biggest strain.

Demand for adult services has risen by an average of 15%, the report says, across new contacts, residential placements, home care packages and supported living. That service alone is £9m over.

The council’s Director of Finance, Ben Smith, delivers the starkest line in the report: the council has “low General Reserves already below the absolute minimum of acceptability”.

Even after using what is forecast to be left of this year’s £8.6m contingency fund, around £12.5m of the gap would remain, to be closed by recovery plans now demanded of Social Services and the Place directorate.

Equal pay bill ‘will need to be materially increased’

Another pressure is building alongside. The council holds a £28m provision for equal pay claims, and the report says it “will need to be materially increased in year”.

Options for finding that money include “deep use” of the council’s earmarked reserves and accounting flexibilities that would free up capital resources, with proposals due before full Council in October and November.

Council tax collection is heading for trouble too: a shortfall in the region of £2m this year based on current trends, after a £1m deficit last year.

Parking income up, planning fees down

There are brighter corners. Drivers are propping up the highways budget, with car parking and enforcement income running £1.9m above expectations, more than covering pressures in road maintenance.

Planning fee income, though, remains £886,000 short of assumptions despite recent fee increases, which the council puts down to market conditions.

Education services are forecast to underspend by £946,000, and delivery of this year’s savings programme is broadly on track, with 97% of the £11.6m target expected to be achieved.

A separate squeeze is building in the school building programme, worth around £400m with the council funding £100m: a Welsh Government cost review has left the current plans £73.6m above what the budget can afford, and the report says the programme will be reprioritised, meaning “less projects will take place”. We’ll look at that in detail in a follow-up piece.

The report asks Cabinet to note the “heightened material uncertainties” and approve the use of the contingency fund, with the finance officer reserving further advice through the year.

It lands on the same packed agenda as the new Public Spaces Protection Order and its £75 fines for dangerous e-bike riding. The same meeting receives the performance report that admitted “unacceptable” waits for home adaptations.