Northampton Borough Council forecasts it will balance books for its last year

Northampton Borough Council is forecasting for the first time that it will balance its books by the end of its existence in April next year.
By James Averill
Published 13th Nov 2020, 14:36 BST
Updated 13th Nov 2020, 14:38 BST
The borough council will be dissolved and replaced by a new unitary authority for West Northamptonshire next spring.The borough council will be dissolved and replaced by a new unitary authority for West Northamptonshire next spring.
The borough council will be dissolved and replaced by a new unitary authority for West Northamptonshire next spring.

The authority has slowly been dwindling down its overspend over the last few months, which was predicted to be as high as £2.5 million in the red at the end of May.

Approaching the end of its shelf life, with it due to be replaced by the new West Northamptonshire unitary council in spring, it has managed to help turn the tables largely thanks to a number of grants from the Government aimed to help local authorities through the coronavirus crisis.

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Last month the borough was awarded an additional £1.23 million to take its overall funding amount to just over £4 million since the pandemic started.

Speaking at the latest cabinet meeting on Wednesday (November 11) Councillor Brandon Eldred, cabinet member for finance, said: “The budget forecast variance for 2020/21 now stands at zero, which with all the grants we’ve received from the Government has helped out no end to bring us back to a level playing field.

“I’m pleased to say we have that money in, there’s more coming in for business grants which we’re working through at the moment ready to hopefully go live on Friday or Monday at the latest.”

In its first batch of business grants during the three-month lockdown earlier this year, Northampton Borough Council supported more than 2,900 businesses with payment totalling almost £35 million.

Related topics:GovernmentWest Northamptonshire