EP134: Medway’s £360m Crisis, Kent Honours & George Low Justice

This week, a report showed some difficulties down the track for Medway Council.

Since 2024, the authority has faced significant challenges with its finances, requiring exceptional financial support from the government, totalling £60.6 million in February, to balance the books and avoid effective bankruptcy.

In return for this, efficiency measures and increases in charges like parking have been introduced, and when the budget for the current financial year was set in February, council leader Vince Maple had confidence the town's council would not need any further exceptional support.

However, a new medium-term financial outlook report has shown that the challenges have not gone away and serious shortfalls are predicted over the next five years.

Documents say that the next financial year could see a £66 million shortfall and a further £81 million budget gap the year after that.

In total, the combined shortfalls predicted for the next five years reached £360 million.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accounting, otherwise known as CIPFA, was brought in when Medway Council first faced budget problems and has been regularly monitoring the authority's progress since 2024.

They said in a review in May this year that although there had been great efforts to make savings and £26 million worth had been made so far, there were concerns over the quality of forecasting.

They felt the challenges the authority was likely to face had been underestimated and the current year's budget was described as unrealistic.

Council leader Vince Maple said that there was no getting away from the challenges the authority was facing, a lot of which was down to the ever-increasing cost pressure from social care services.

Now, it's not a problem that's unique to Medway.

Every authority which has to provide social care is struggling to keep up, but it does need tackling.

Councillor Maple said the authority was having conversations with government about whether EFS may be necessary again, but the council was also working to lower costs and raise revenue to balance the books.

Well of course we continue to be in regular dialogue with MHCLG, the government department that looks after councils and also with SITFA who are the sector experts on local government finance.

We know as a council it costs us £1.35 million every single day to take forward adult social care, children's services and temporary accommodation.

We need to pay for that and some of that will come through savings that we'll continue to make as best as we can but also income generation as well.

This week, a report showed some difficulties down the track for Medway Council.

Since 2024, the authority has faced significant challenges with its finances, requiring exceptional financial support from the government, totalling £60.6 million in February, to balance the books and avoid effective bankruptcy.

In return for this, efficiency measures and increases in charges like parking have been introduced, and when the budget for the current financial year was set in February, council leader Vince Maple had confidence the town's council would not need any further exceptional support.

However, a new medium-term financial outlook report has shown that the challenges have not gone away and serious shortfalls are predicted over the next five years.

Documents say that the next financial year could see a £66 million shortfall and a further £81 million budget gap the year after that.

In total, the combined shortfalls predicted for the next five years reached £360 million.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accounting, otherwise known as CIPFA, was brought in when Medway Council first faced budget problems and has been regularly monitoring the authority's progress since 2024.

They said in a review in May this year that although there had been great efforts to make savings and £26 million worth had been made so far, there were concerns over the quality of forecasting.

They felt the challenges the authority was likely to face had been underestimated and the current year's budget was described as unrealistic.

Council leader Vince Maple said that there was no getting away from the challenges the authority was facing, a lot of which was down to the ever-increasing cost pressure from social care services.

Now, it's not a problem that's unique to Medway.

Every authority which has to provide social care is struggling to keep up, but it does need tackling.

Councillor Maple said the authority was having conversations with government about whether EFS may be necessary again, but the council was also working to lower costs and raise revenue to balance the books.

Well of course we continue to be in regular dialogue with MHCLG, the government department that looks after councils and also with SITFA who are the sector experts on local government finance.

We know as a council it costs us £1.35 million every single day to take forward adult social care, children's services and temporary accommodation.

We need to pay for that and some of that will come through savings that we'll continue to make as best as we can but also income generation as well.