Council's prudent planning yields remarkable financial results

11 July 2023

West Northamptonshire Council successfully tackled significant financial pressures in the 2022-23 financial year demonstrating its commitment to prudent planning and efficient spending.

At tonight’s Cabinet meeting, members will see how the Council managed to reduce a potential overspend of £7.6 million to just £300,000 on a £342.3 million budget, representing a variance of less than 0.1% from the original budget.

The report to Cabinet, which presents provisional year-end figures for the Council’s second year as an authority, also highlighted external factors that influenced its spending, including a 40-year high inflation rate of 14.2% and increased demand for social care services due to some extent the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Managing to deliver our second year as a new council so closely to our initial budget figure is a very satisfying and a remarkable achievement.

The challenges were identified early on in the year and were tackled head-on, with staff playing a vital role in identifying savings and efficiencies to control spending. The rapid actions implemented demonstrate WNC’s commitment to responsible financial management whilst also enabling new investment in services and increasing the support provided to local communities.

It is clear that there remain challenging times ahead as WNC continues to see major growth in demand at a time of ongoing high inflation. A significant demand for social care services from a rising population of both the elderly and the very young will persist which will necessarily demand a continuation of the strict financial discipline WNC has implemented’Cllr Malcolm Longley, WNC’s Cabinet Member for Finance

The full Cabinet report on the Council’s revenue monitoring and provisional outturn for 22/22 and its financial outlook for 23/24 is available on the WNC website.