Leicester City Council is ‘rapidly running out of options’ to cut costs and faces financial crisis ahead of its 2025-26 budget, its mayor has warned Michael Gove.
In a letter to the levelling up secretary, Mayor Peter Soulsby said: ‘Whilst we can probably avoid receiving a section 114 report in 2024-25, a 114 report is becoming almost inevitable before we set the 2025-26 budget.’
Mayor Soulsby said Leicester was facing huge cost increases for social care, with services set to cost an extra £50m a year by 2025, and added that the costs of housing homeless people were being exacerbated by government policies on asylum seekers.
He said: ‘Despite the problems being common to the sector, I do not feel the Government understands the consequences of the storm breaking across the country.’
Government cuts have already forced Leicester to reduce spending on services other than social care by 50% between 2010 and 2020, Mayor Soulsby said.
He added: ‘I now fear for the future of services such as parks, sports, museums, libraries, cultural services and community centres – indeed all those services that make our city a pleasant place to live.’
