Projected £47m overspend for Shropshire Council

Shropshire Council is projecting to overspend by £47m by the end of the financial year.

It said the figure had "risen significantly" and followed an in-depth review of spending so far and future spending.

The projected overspend "includes some savings that have been carried over for two years and continuing pressures and increasing costs in areas including adults and children's services".

The council said it had asked for a loan from the government to help it to continue to deliver services for more than three years.

The Liberal Democrat-run authority said since declaring a financial emergency in September, it had introduced several measures.

The authority said it held some funds in reserve, but at £34.28m this was not enough to cover the projected overspend, leaving a shortfall of £12.289m.

Speaking on BBC Politics Midlands the council's leader, Heather Kidd, said the authority's struggles resulted from the previous administration.

"The budget that we're having to work to is a Conservative budget where a third of the savings were never achievable," she said.

Shropshire was given the "third lowest" spending settlement from the Labour government last year and "lost [a] £10m in rural services development grant which has fundamentally made a difference", she added.

Labour MP for Redditch, Chris Bloore, said the government had given "one of the biggest spending settlements" to councils last year.

However, he added the current situation in Shropshire had resulted from how "local government was stripped to the bone" during the Conservative government, with "over £20bn of local government spending power" lost.

Conservative Mike Wood, MP for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, said it was "clearly nonsense" his party were responsible for Shropshire Council's shortfalls.

He added: "It's clear that the government is going to need to step in because there are particular pressures on rural councils".

Shropshire's Reform UK group leader Dawn Husemann said the authority needed more support from the government.

"More and more is being pushed down onto local authorities, services we have to provide, but no extra funding is coming for it," she said.

Cabinet member for finance Roger Evans said the council would need "to continue to do everything we can to bring our costs down".

He said: "These are really difficult times but we are doing all we can to enable our council to become sustainable, while also delivering many of the services that residents want and need."

A report providing a review of the council's financial position will be discussed by its cabinet on Wednesday.

Politics Midlands is on BBC One in the region from 10:00 BST on Sunday, and available afterwards on BBC iPlayer

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