£1.5m extra cost of energy for Blackpool Council

An increase in wage costs and higher interests rates which will raise the cost of borrowing for capital projects, will also have an impact on Blackpool Council's budget for 2022/23.

Council leader Lynn Williams sets out the financial plight in a report which also reveals the cost of adult and children's social care is rising.

In a report to the next meeting of the full council, she says it is "imperative" to keep lobbying central government for more support.

Among the pressures on Blackpool Council's budget for the current financial year are a pay award for local government workers which would cost the authority £5.5m, which is £3.6m more than expected.

Inflation could cost the council an additional £1.5m, mainly in more expensive energy costs while rising interest rates on council borrowing could cost an extra £3.1m.

The report by Coun Williams says: "Nationally there is also soaring demand for child protection services and adult social care provision, and the rising costs of providing such care are creating a burden that current levels of local taxation and government funding struggle to meet."

Council spending has also been hit by the effects of the Covid pandemic, with costs of £3.16m in 2020/21 and £2.59m in 2021/22, despite government grants.

Coun Williams says: "These are yet again unprecedented times for the whole of the local government sector."

Measures to save money could include freezing any non-essential spending and delaying the replacement of staff who have left jobs which are not in frontline services.

The council could also look at dipping into savings with working balances currently standing at £6m, and earmarked reserves at £65.6m, although this will fall to £52.2m during the current financial year.

Earmarked reserves are funds set aside for a particular purpose, but which does not need to be spent yet.

Coun Williams adds "it is imperative that we continue to lobby central government" alongside other local authorities "for the funding necessary to cope with the burdens and demands presented as a result of exceptionalinflationary pressures and demographic demands upon statutory services."