Herts Council had £11.7m overspend in the last year - but it is lower than predicted

HERTFORDSHIRE County Council has reported an £11.7m operational overspend for 2022/23 – which is lower than had been predicted earlier in the year.

The council – which provides services such as social care, public health, highways, trading standards and the Fire Service – had drawn-up an operational revenue budget of £990.2m for 22/23.

At the end of December (2022) it had been predicted that that budget would overspend by £16.2m.

But at a meeting of the council’s cabinet on Monday (July 10) it was reported that the operational overspend was £4.5m lower.

And – councillors were told – it will be more than offset by identified savings of £13.3m.

The remaining £1.6m – and unused contingency of £8.7m – will be carried forward to this year (2023/24), it was reported.

And it has already been earmarked for the council’s planned investment in SEND and other identified pressures for this year’s budget.

At the meeting executive member for resources and performance Cllr Bob Deering told councillors it had been “a challenging year from the financial perspective”.

And he said the council had worked “exceptionally hard every day” to deliver a balanced budget.

Looking forward he pointed to plans to increase the revenue budget by £130m in 23/24, which he said would be “a record revenue spend for this council”.

And he said: “So again we are showing our ability to find that amount of money and spend it on the residents of Hertfordshire.”

Aside from services, Cllr Deering also pointed to a record £274m level of capital investment in 2022/23.

Cataloguing some of that investment, Cllr Deering pointed to £5m invested on waste infrastructure; £13m on projects to support delivery of the SEND strategy and £19m in improving the condition of school buildings.

He also highlighted £86m investment in highways network and £10m on new highways infrastructure, including the A120 Little Hadham bypass and A602 improvements.

“These are very very substantial amounts of money and it is not an easy process to achieve this ,” he said.

“And there is work done every day every hour of every day managing the finances of Hertfordshire County Council.

Meanwhile it was also reported that he ring-fenced schools budget – of £668.8m – for last year (2022/23) recorded an overspend of £1.8m.