A Middlesbrough cllr has confirmed that he will take council officers out for a drink, after they delivered within budget.
Middlesbrough Independent Councillors Association (MICA) Cllr Ian Morrish made the offer at a full council meeting back in January that he would not only congratulate officers, but take them out for a drink if there wasn’t an overspend at the end of the financial year.
In January, he made reference to the anticipated £1.4m overspend, which didn’t end up materialising come the end of 2024/25. Instead, the council finished the year with an underspend of more than £2m. £4.7m was used in early 2024 to set a balanced budget for the year, but as a result of the underspend, less than £2.5m of the financial support was needed.
At the full council meeting on 9 July, Cllr Morrish said: “I’m pleased with the positive direction of our finances, however I’m concerned that we have failed to deliver £2.816m of savings. Can you explain what savings these are, and if they will be delivered later, or if not, what savings have been identified instead.”
The final underspend at year-end of £2.257m included £2.816m of net savings which were not deliverable in 2024/25, however these were offset by a total of £5.073m of net underspends across the council.
Cllr Nicky Walker, executive member for finance, said: “I think it’s been continuously said about the savings, when they were set in the budget, that they were going to be very challenging… However it was right to put challenging targets because if you don’t put challenging targets in relation to savings, and having to set a balanced budget, then you just have to make cuts elsewhere.”
She confirmed that the savings hadn’t been forgotten, and while such savings had to be reported as not achieved in last year’s budget, they are expected to be achieved in this year’s budget. Cllr Walker clarified that some savings were over-delivered on, such as in the environment department, as a result of the green waste subscription scheme. She also confirmed that the main areas where there had been under-delivery was both adult and children social care.
While discussing the finances, especially while fielding a question from Cllr Morrish, Cllr Walker couldn’t resist an opportunity to remind the MICA cllr of the commitment that he made back in January to congratulate council officers and take them out for a drink if the council delivered within budget at the end of 2024/25.
“I did check with the chief executive earlier on and there’s about 3,000 [officers], so I do understand Cllr Morrish might have to be somewhat selective in deciding whether it’s just the budget holders, or all the finance department, or just the leadership team, and being a bit selective because it is quite a lot – 3,000!”
Cllr Morrish said: “Yeah, that offer still stands, and obviously we are not at the end of the year yet fully, but in which case, I’ll look forward to the long-promised review of senior officers when that comes about and I’ll have less to buy for.”
Cllr Walker responded, saying: “In terms of timing, we are, we’ve reported the year-end outturn, that it the outturn, that we will be reporting, if it hasn’t already been, to central government and that will be reflected in the end of year accounts, so I’m afraid there’s no way of wriggling out of it!”
