Shropshire Council has warned that it is facing a predicted overspend of up to £18.8m due to inflation, rising energy costs, and the growing demand for council services.
The local authority’s first quarterly monitoring report of the council’s finances recorded that inflation is adding an extra £5m to the costs of running services.
It also reported that the extra demand for council services, in particular for children’s social care and safeguarding, is adding almost £7m.
The number of children in care in Shropshire Council’s area in April 2022 was 53% higher than in April 2020 and is up 21% year on year.
The council warned these extra costs was forcing the predicted overspend this year up between its best case scenario of £4.1m and worst case of £18.8m.
Gwilym Butler, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for finance, said: ‘Just as households face very big increases in costs, we’re also facing a really tough year with rising fuel and contract costs, but we remain focused on delivering our priorities set out in our Shropshire Plan.
‘The combination of inflation and growing demand for our services, linked to a number of factors, means we are now working hard to identify how we can quickly close the overspend gap between now and next April, while we are also looking at difficult decisions on what we can stop doing to help to make the savings we must find.’
