Guildford Borough Council has stopped hiring until at least October as it attempts to cover a multi-million pound financial shortfall.
The Surrey authority is facing an in year-deficit of £1.7m and a budget gap of £18.3m in the period to 2026-27.
A council report says Guildford ‘is facing a potential S114 report if actions are not agreed to bring this situation back in to balance’.
By October, the council must produce a financial recovery plan that sets out how it will attempt to close the gap.
At an extraordinary full council meeting on 30 August, councillors endorsed the first issue of this plan, which included a recruitment freeze.
The local authority said there would be exceptions to its pause on hiring, such as where health and safety or statutory services would be at risk.
At the meeting, councillors also agreed that budgets would be reduced in areas where allocated money had not been spent.
The final financial recovery plan will set out the ‘significant’ work that will be required to set a balanced budget in February next year, a statutory requirement that the council has called a ‘potential S114 trigger-point’.
Accounting errors were also uncovered in a delayed audit into Guildford’s 2020-21 accounts, meaning the council has £20m less in usable reserves than was thought when the 2023-24 budget was set.
