Nottingham City Council has been too slow in turning around its finances, according to the team charged with overseeing its recovery.
The latest report of the improvement and assurance board (IAB) chaired by Sir Tony Redmond said: ‘Progress falls short of what the IAB would have expected.’
However, local government minister Lee Rowley has decided against escalating intervention by appointing commissioners.
He said: ‘It is paramount that Nottingham does not loosen its grip nor lose its focus on its improvement priorities over the next quarter.’
In the progress report published today, the IAB expressed doubts over measures to rein in a £12m overspend this year ‘due to the inherent current weaknesses in basic financial practices’.
Similarly, while the funding gap for next year stands at £3m, the report read: ‘Few of the proffered savings that close the gap have actually been risk assessed.’
Nottingham has ‘struggled to fill key finance posts’ and is relying on interim staff.
The IAB was also critical of the pace of improvement in governance of Nottingham’s companies, finding ‘progress has been far slower than targeted’.
Nottingham's speed of decision-making has improved in some areas, but the report said ‘concerns remain about the inability, in some cases, for officers to exercise their delegated authority in a timely and efficient way,’ adding: ‘The constitution is not being observed in all respects.’
However, audit and overview and scrutiny is being strengthened and a ‘significant amount of progress’ has been reported in transformation.
A plan is also underway to retrain and reskill the workforce.
The IAB found overall a 'serious sense of purpose in seeking to resolve all the outstanding issues’.
Nottingham’s chief executive, Mel Barrett, said: ‘We are committed to working together to address the need to reduce the council’s cost base while ensuring we are providing economic, efficient and effective Best Value services to the people of Nottingham.’
This article was originally published by The MJ (£).
