'Cause for concern' as Portsmouth City Council faces overspend of £800,000 on children leaving care
HIGHER than expected costs for children leaving the care system had left Portsmouth City Council facing an overspend of more than £800,000 at the end of last year.
A budget monitoring report for the third quarter of the 2021/22 financial year shows children's social care had spent £2.3m more than forecast due to 'a small number of very high cost care leavers' as well as increasing numbers of people passing through the system.
The failure of the council to find a sponsor for the Spinnaker Tower has also left it with a £700,000 shortfall.
Despite the use of several reserve and contingency funds, the report shows the council had an estimated overspend of £802,700 although it says this could be covered by the use of a further contingency fund if it could not be covered by the end of the year.
However, council director of finance Chris Ward has warned the position was still 'a cause for concern'.
'Whilst the approved budget [for] 2022/23 has sought to remedy unavoidable budget pressures, such as many of those being experienced in the current year, there remains longer term uncertainty relating to further increases in demand,' he said. 'Should this persist, the council's savings requirements in the future could rise.'
His report recommends that council directors and cabinet members work to 'eliminate deficits in the medium term'.
It comes after The News reported the council’s budget forecasts for the coming decade, show net debt increasing from £461m to £819m by 2025 due to ‘costly’ redevelopments, which it warns could force the sale of some of its investments.