The leader of Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) has said it is a “nightmare” trying to balance the authority’s budget and still provide the vital services people need. 

Funding for social care and having enough money to fix the county’s roads were highlighted by Cllr Lucy Nethsingha as particular concerns. 

She said that while councils were “comparatively consumed” to budgeting when not knowing exactly how much money there will be, this year has been “particularly difficult”, highlighting high inflation levels and increases to the cost of living. 

Local authorities must set a balanced budget every year, whilst providing required services to communities, which at county council level includes social care, highways and dealing with waste. 

A report presented at a meeting in December said the authority was facing a £12.8m budget gap in 2023/24. 

Cllr Nethsingha said it was “very difficult” trying to prepare a long-term budget “when things change every month” 

She said: “It has been a complete nightmare since the Spring because so many things have changed, the war in Ukraine and massive increase in living costs, the huge inflation spike, and then just when you think you have got your head around that we had the ‘Trussenomics’. 

“The council borrows quite a lot of money, so the increase in borrowing costs was terrifying.” 

Cllr Nethsingha added that national discussions on how inflation will impact staff pay was another area of uncertainty that could impact on the budget. 

Worries about children’s social care 

Cllr Nethsingha said she was worried about the authority’s ability to fund social care, highlighting that this was not just for older people but children as well. 

She said: “People tend to think of social care as adult social care and caring for people with dementia, and while that is quite a lot of our bill, the bit of it that I am almost more worried about is children’s social care. 

“We have a huge problem of there being sufficient places where children can be looked after safely. Some of those places are amazingly expensive so just one of two new cases can make a huge difference to our costs. 

“Some of those are children who are suffering from mental health concerns, and I don’t know how much people are aware about the spike in children and adolescents' mental health issues.” 

Cllr Nethsingha said the council is looking after children and young people with “really quite extreme mental health needs” and some of those care packages are “astronomically expensive, several thousand pounds a week for an individual”. 

“You can see an increase of quite a small number of individuals at that cost has quite a big increase on our budget, and it is very unpredictable and we don’t know when that is going to happen,” she said. 

Share of council tax ‘likely’ to be increased 

Cllr Nethsingha said it was likely that the authority would have to increase its share of the council tax in the next budget in order to ensure essential services could continue to be delivered, but said it was not an easy decision to make. 

She said: “We don’t like having to ask people for money when we know that everybody is struggling, but I think we are likely to have to raise council tax in order to make sure we are still able to provide the services to those who are in the most need. 

“I think the bit of our budget that I am the most worried about is our ability to fund social care that is critical, and we 100 per cent need to make sure we can pay those costs. 

“That is not going to be easy for people who are then being asked to pay higher council tax and our part of the council tax is quite large, so that is a really difficult decision.” 

‘We don’t have the finances available to fix and improve county’s roads’ 

Cllr Nethsingha said she was also ‘worried and frustrated’ about the state of the county’s roads. 

She said: “You have only got to drive, walk or cycle anywhere in Cambridgeshire and you will find that the state of the roads is shocking. 

“We would really like to be able to do more about that, but at the moment we are very aware that we are simply not able to put the money in that would make us able to not only stop our roads from deteriorating, but start to improve them and I know we can’t do that because we don’t have the finances available. 

“It is possible that if the costs of care and inflation in public sector pay is a little bit lower next year than we are budgeting for, then we might be able to put some more money into repairing the roads, and that would be great. 

“Bu the thing we absolutley have to do is to be able to make sure that we are keeping adults and children safe and that we are able to care for those people, so that has to be the first priority.” 

Cllr Nethsingha said there are things she is “determined” to keep funding, including free school meals vouchers for families during school holidays. 

She also said the authority is “trying very hard” to make sure staff are paid the real living wage, and that investment continues in renewable energy projects and retrofitting programmes such as for schools. 

The county council is still facing budget gaps in future years, and when it does agree its 2023/24 budget, work will have to begin on how savings can be made in future years. 

Cllr Nethsingha said: “It is a constant concern and particularly the impact of inflation on those future gaps is going to be quite painful. 

“That it continues to be a major worry and is also a major reason why I hope very much that things are not quite as bad as we are currently predicting they will be.”