Reduced government funding, rapidly increasing demand for services and an ageing population put unsustainable pressure on the council’s finances with a shortfall of £51.4m before mitigations predicted for 2025/26.
Haringey has released its draft budget with residents and businesses encouraged to get involved ahead of consideration by Full Council in March.
Proposals in the budget include:
- Reducing costs and maximising efficiency in the council’s back-office services
- Prioritising services for those residents who are most in need including social care for adults and children and support for those needing temporary housing
- Continuing to safeguard public assets valued by residents including parks, libraries, highways and high streets
- Reviewing services to see if there are ways to deliver them at lower cost without reducing the support for residents
In total, there are £18.8m of new spending reductions to close the funding gap as part of the budget proposals for 2025/26.
Leader of the Council, Cllr Peray Ahmet said: “After more than a decade of chronic underfunding by the previous government, spiralling costs for social care as well as temporary accommodation and population increases our finances, like those of other councils, are under huge strain.
“Put simply, we have much less funding to serve more people who require more services which have become more expensive to provide.
“As a council, we must set a balanced budget and will look to do so by reducing our costs and finding other efficiencies, but we do have some difficult decisions to make.
“There were some positive announcements on local government funding by the Chancellor in October, but we understand you cannot overturn 14 years’ of austerity with one national budget, and we will continue to push for fairer funding settlement and adequate resourcing for boroughs like Haringey.
“The council is committed to listening to the views of our residents and businesses as we develop our spending plans for 2025/26. Please take a look at the budget proposals and give us your feedback.”
The council receives around £143m a year less in real terms in core government grants than it did in 2011. At the same time, the borough’s population has continued to increase, including a 24% rise in the number of residents over-65.
Increased demand for temporary accommodation for homeless households and adult’s and children’s social care is a major cause of the funding emergency.
The borough supports almost 3,000 households in temporary accommodation with a forecast spend to the end of the year at quarter one of almost £28m as costs across the capital increased by 68% and supply fell.
Costs of adult social care are up 10%, with the forecast spend at quarter one by the council reaching £88.7m by the end of 2024/25
Haringey has amongst the highest levels of deprivation in the capital but is considered an ‘outer London’ borough’, receiving even less funding than its ‘inner London’ neighbours.
Residents across the borough can now have their say and help address these issues with the consultation running until Sunday 5 January 2025. For more information and to take part please visit here.
