Council warned over 'alarming' budget gap and is urged to 'prevent looming crisis' facing Northampton residents this winter

Northampton's Labour Group has urged the Conservative-run council to “act now” to prevent the authority from running out of funds.

Northants Labour leader Wendy Randall and Labour councillor Danielle Stone are urging WNC to look at its finances to prevent it from going bankrupt like the former Northamptonshire County Council.

A report presented to West Northamptonshire Council's cabinet on Friday (September 23) confirmed the cost of living crisis is pushing up expenditure way beyond the £10 million contingency set aside for the current financial year.

Spiralling inflation, increasing homelessness and greater demand for adult care is highlighted as key pressures impacting the Tory-run council’s finances.

The report predicts a £7.6 million overspend and warns: "It is the view of officers that we may not have seen the worst of the financial pressures yet.”

Councillor Danielle Stone says she believes the budget gap is actually £27.6 million, not £17.6 million, after she was told WNC has “trimmed down” another £10 million from the frontline service budget.

Councillor Stone said: "Carrying a £27 million budget gap in the first quarter of the year is alarming.

"I am assured that good management of the budget is in place. However, good management is not sufficient. We need to do three things to prevent a rerun of what happened at the county.

"The four West Northamptonshire MPs must make the case for West Northants, and other local authorities, to receive fairer funding. We cannot run on empty.

"WNC must do what they set out to do - change the way we do things.

"We need to move speedily to integrated systems. At present we are still using the grossly out of date and inefficient systems we inherited from predecessor authorities. This is costing us time, money and putting a ridiculous burden on staff. It also means our residents are not getting the quality service they deserve-and pay for.

"We must bring services back in house. It is costing us the hugest amount of money to pay for services on the open market. We need our money spent locally. We need WNC to shape and deliver the services we need, not go cap in hand to people who want to get rich at the expense of the vulnerable.”

Labour Group leader Wendy Randall said changes "need to happen now to prevent the looming crisis this winter”.

She said: “I am calling on WNC to move quickly and smartly to prevent the looming crisis our residents are facing this winter."

Martin Henry, executive director of finance at WNC, said the current cost of living crisis and other 'external factors' are 'causing some budget pressures' for the authority.

Mr Henry said: "The variance is a little more than 2 per cent of the total budget of the council for all the services it provides. However, we are committed to minimising the budget variance as far as we can, and we are dealing with the position in a proactive and open way.

"We will consider all options to continue to reduce expenditure and increase income to reduce the financial pressures being faced, whilst seeking to protect service provision wherever possible. "

Both Andrew Lewer MP and Michael Ellis have been contacted for comment.