Forecast shows council facing £6m overspend

A council is forecast to be making a multimillion-pound overspend by the end of the financial year, according to a report.

Newcastle City Council is currently expected to spend £6m more than its budget by March, the Liberal Democrat-led authority's routine quarterly forecast showed.

However, deputy leader Mark Mitchell said "the numbers will change" as the year continues and "for those that have been around this for a while, the numbers won't be a huge surprise".

He said the main financial pressures were in children's services, adult social care and legal costs.

The property portfolio is predicted to overspend by more than £5.4m.

Much of the property expenditure comes from significant projects at Eldon Square and the acquisition and refurbishment of Stockbridge House on the Quayside.

Adult social care is expected to overspend by more than £5.2m due to "high demand for learning disability commissioned services".

Children's services is anticipated to have an overspend of £2.5m, while legal services is predicted to see £1.1m.

The council said these overspends are "partially offset" by underspends in other areas, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Mitchell said: "In children and families, there are some very high-needs cases and we also have significant issues with adult social care - despite a lot of warm words, the government fails to actually grasp the nettle of a National Care Service and how we will deal with some long-term issues.

"There are also issues around legal and governance - we are trying to get hold of our legal costs, they are going up year by year and we need a slightly different approach."

The government has previously said it is "committed to building a system that properly recognises and supports unpaid carers" as part of its plans for a National Care Service.

Following May's elections, which saw Labour ousted from power after 15 years, the Lib Dems control the council as a minority administration with the support of the Green Party.

Follow BBC Newcastle on X,Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram and listen to Radio Newcastle on BBC Sounds.