Council reduces overspend by 50% in three months

West Berkshire Council's projected overspend this year has halved over the past three months as the impact of improving financial control begins to deliver tangible savings. 

The projected budgetary overspend by March 2024 was £6.6m at the end of June (Q1), however latest figures show that at the end of September (Q2) this deficit has reduced to £3.3m. A major contribution in this saving has been a significant reduction in spending on external agency workers - which has a current run-rate of £580k over the past four weeks compared to £748k during the same period last year. 

Measures to ensure agency workers are hired through the Council's preferred supplier (Comensura) has facilitated the reduction from 35 to 9 non-Comensura workers. Using Comensura improves our financial efficiency as it provides better value for money, greater oversight of the use of agency workers and advantages with regards to agency workers moving into permanent roles. 

The latest financial report is due to be considered by the Executive on Thursday 14 December, 2023.  

Councillor Jeff Brooks, Deputy Leader of West Berkshire Council, said: 

"Our decisive action has enabled us to shed spend on agency staff, whilst maintaining a clear focus on improving our recruitment of permanent staff. It is encouraging to see a forecast of around £2m annually in reduced spend through the measures we have taken. It will allow us to ensure we can continue to protect the most vulnerable people, deliver services we are proud of and implement our Council Strategy. 

"There is more to do but we are striding out in the right direction. While it remains a challenging time there is reason to be cautiously optimistic for the future as we work to budget efficiently and effectively to put us in a good stead for future years." 

The work is being driven by a forecast overspend this year which originally stood at £8.7m, and with a £14m gap next year between the cost of delivering services and the funding we expect to receive. 

You can find out more about the work we have been doing to balance the budget here: