Council considers spend freeze to deal with £9m deficit

A spending freeze and leaving vacant posts unfilled are being considered by Devon County Council to tackle a projected multi-million pound overspend, the BBC has learned.

The council has forecast a £9.1m budget overspend, external by April 2016 unless action is taken.

Some £1.8m was down to extra spending on children in care, the council said.

A move from agency social workers to new staff and increased school transport costs are also factors.

Updates on this story and more from Devon

The projected overspend, in People Services, is equal to about 2% of the authority's annual spending.

This is an another headache for the ruling Conservative group in Devon.

They are already thinking towards the next elections for the council, to be held in May 2017.

The budget overspend will generate unwelcome negative publicity, but also give senior councillors an ongoing extra concern in addition to their efforts to deal with significant budget cuts.

A group of senior county councillors has been set up to deal with the issue.

One said: "We're taking early action, so we can be sure this overspend will be dealt with".

The council's budget book said overall spending this year (2015-16) was estimated to be £437.7m.

It said achieving that had been "challenging" in the face of government cuts.

Devon County Council is making overall spending cuts of a third in its total budget, from £600m in 2009 to £400m in 2017.