LATEST projections put Flintshire County Council on course for a final budget deficit of just £400,000 this year.
A revenue budget monitoring report covering February 2025 will be presented to the authority’s Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Thursday.
It will show that significant cuts to almost all portfolios across Flintshire County Council had left the authority with an operating deficit of £3.4m.
The authority has agreed to allocate £3m from its reserves to reduce the deficit further ahead of the end of the financial year in April. It now has just £2.4m in its contingency reserve to cover unexpected costs such as extreme weather damage.
It is a remarkable turnaround for the council, which has battled for 12 months to keep budgets under control and cut costs while maintaining core services as it tackled an £18.2m funding gap.
“I’d like to thank all the officers and council employees who have worked hard to get us to this position in difficult circumstances,” said Flintshire County Council leader Cllr Dave Hughes.
“We appointed a dedicated cabinet member for Transformation to hold every department to account. As a result we have been able to apply an unpredecedented level of scrutiny to get the deficit down.”
But there will be no rest for the authority, as it must make further stringent budget cuts next year to prevent a potential £23m budget deficit in 2025/26.
That gap grew – first to £38.4m then in December £47.5m. But a 9.5% increase in council tax and further proposed cost savings have meant Flintshire has declared a balanced budget for next year.
It also intends to use an additional £1.2m received from the Welsh Local Government Settlement to partially replenish its reserves in readiness for next winter.
Risks remain, with uncertainty over whether the Welsh Government will cover the UK’s National Insurance increase. An announcement is expected in late spring.
Flintshire is facing a potential bill of £4.2m to cover the rise. If Welsh Government does not provide full funding, that alone could wipe out the authority’s contingency reserves.
For this year’s finances, officers are still working to bridge the £400,000 gap before April.
“There is work to do and we don’t know for sure what the end of year position will be,” said Cllr Hughes. “The issue is the costs we have no control over – particularly Social Services.
“If there is a spike in demand from vulnerable children or adults in the county we have a duty to support them – but that means we still face unknown fluctuations in our spending commitments between now and April.”
According to the revenue budget report: “This projected overspend – and impact on our available reserves – continues to be of concern and progress needs to be maintained to bring expenditure back in line with the approved budget.
“Despite the actions being undertaken to reduce the underlying pressures on a permanent basis, current indications suggest that many of the pressures being faced by the council this year are likely to continue into the next financial year and beyond.”
