The Government is expected to grant Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council a £20m capitalisation direction despite raising concerns over its finances.

Ministers said they were ‘minded to’ grant the request for the current financial year though they said there were 'significant concerns about the present financial strategic direction of the council'.

The capitalisation direction is dependent on BCP submitting a plan to close its 2023-24 budget gap and undergoing an external assurance review of its finances, which have come under criticism from Whitehall officials and some councillors.

Independent member Andy Hadley warned: ‘What we seem to be doing is creating a very high-debt organisation with struggling and disintegrating services and we need to change that.’

At a cabinet meeting today, BCP’s deputy leader Philip Broadhead said inflationary pressures had wiped out a predicted surplus in next year’s budget and opened a £33.9m budget gap.

He said it had come ‘come out of the blue’ and that ‘it could get even worse over the winter’.

Cllr Broadhead added: ‘These are very big, humbling figures but we are a large, confident authority.’

Council leader Drew Mellor said the extra funding was needed to fund a transformation programme, the costs of which now stood at £75m, which will deliver £50m of savings annually.

Decisions on further capitalisation directions to cover the full costs of the transformation project will be decided in future years.

A ban on new spending unless signed off by the section 151 officer and Cllr Mellor has also been put in place.

This article was originally published by The MJ (£).