Hertfordshire County Council payroll drops into warning territory due to 'financial pressures'
Hertfordshire County Council’s payroll costs dipped into amber warning territory in the third quarter of 2024/24, a report revealed.
The figures showed the local authority spent the annualised equivalent of £382.7 million on payroll costs in the third quarter, with an annualised equivalent of £29.8 million (8.4 per cent) more spent on salaries than over the same period in the previous financial year of 2023/24.
A report into the council’s resources performance for the third quarter of 2024/24 was presented to its resources and performance cabinet panel on Friday, March 14.
Presenting the figures, Paraic McKenna, the council’s head of intelligence improvement and technology, said: “Two of three metrics for the panel to note, the first is on payroll… at £383 million annualised spend.
“Which is, as you know, a known and anticipated level within the IP but it is flagged as amber, simply reflecting the financial pressures that the local authority faces and this is probably the single largest area of spend across all of our staff.”
Other human resources statistics in the report showed an 11.9 per cent voluntary staff turnover in the third quarter, described as ‘stable’ for over two years after peaking to 19 per cent in the last quarter of 2021/22.
An average of 4.4 days were lost to sickness, ‘steadily reducing’ from 5.3 days reported in the first quarter of 2022/23.
The workforce headcount was listed as 1,617, while agency spend was £3.6 million – a reduction of £262,000 since the first quarter of 2023/2024.