The Council has been prudent over the years and has put some money away into savings pots (called reserves) which enables us to deal with extra costs when they arise. However, like savings, they can only be used once and when they have been used, they are gone.
In 2022, we had £118m in our reserves. At the end of the 2024/25 financial year, we are forecasting we will have £17m. Any further overspend this year further reduces reserves. We cannot use further reserves to fund services.
The proposed budget plan for 2025/26 does not include further use of reserves.