Council expected to be £17m down in three years

Wednesday, 30 July 2025 15:55

By George Lythgoe

Rochdale Council are expecting to be more than £17m out of pocket in three years’ time.

The latest budget papers have revealed a £17.1m shortfall in the local authority budget for 2028/29. This means the town hall will have to find savings and make cuts in the coming years – unless a better funding model for councils is introduced.

‘Significant’ pressure on adult and children’s social care services is one of the key reasons for the deficit.

Sam Smith, deputy chief finance officer at Rochdale Council, told the latest town hall meeting: “Key pressures continue to be social care with increasing demand and costs. Commercial lettings proposal did not come to fruition and therefore will be included in future the budget gap.

“The interest rates on borrowing are not forecast to reduce as quickly as originally planned, and this will cause a pressure on the budget.”

According to council papers, since 2010/11, the council has made ongoing savings of £192m from its revenue budget.

A budget gap of £1.6m is expected next year and a further £7.7m the following year, the council’s cabinet was told. The finance team has already started work to identify areas of the budget where savings and cuts can be made.

There is hope a new government funding package could help reduce pressure on staff to make savings each year.

Despite the new Labour government coming in and increasing core spending power (CSP) for local government, this alone will not be enough to plug up the blackhole in council finances, the meeting in Number One Riverside heard.

Following the spending review last month, CSP will increase nationally from £69.4bn in 2025/26 to £73.2bn in 2026/27, £76.1bn in 2027/28 and £79.3bn in 2028/29. However, the majority of the increase assumes that local authorities will agree to increase council tax by the maximum 4.99 per cent allowed.

As part of the spending review a number of reforms are being consulted on, which could impact future funding.

These reforms could come into effect as soon as April 2026.