Kingston takes action to protect essential services in face of huge financial challenges for London councils

Like most councils across the country, Kingston is facing a huge challenge to meet the needs of vulnerable adults and children, with rising demand for essential support, higher costs of providing services and significant long-term underfunding. 

The council is taking immediate action to reduce a forecast overspend by the end of this financial year. This overspend is equivalent to around 4.5% of its overall budget, at around £8m, and is largely driven by the increasing care needs of vulnerable adults and children and providing temporary accommodation for over 1,000 homeless households. 

Kingston is not alone. This is a crisis affecting local authorities across the Capital, with London councils collectively predicting a £600m overspend this year alone. 

Last year Kingston spent more than £100m - over half its budget - on essential support for people in need. The council’s careful financial management and rigorous monitoring of its finances means it has been able to identify the predicted overspend early and has implemented actions to address it. This includes introducing recruitment restrictions on all but the most essential roles such as social workers, along with tight expenditure restraints.    

However the council is also facing a challenge to find the money to deliver services in the coming years, with ongoing work to aim towards financial sustainability in the longer term.  

Kingston is working hard to transform how it provides services to make the best use of the money it has to support those most in need, while maintaining the essential services that keep the borough running. However, this is against the backdrop of the need for significant funding reform, without which the long term sustainability of local government across the country is under threat. 

Kingston Council’s Portfolio Holder for Finance Cllr Richard Thorpe said: 

“We are committed to doing all we can to protect services and continue to provide essential support for the most vulnerable residents, but we along with the rest of London’s councils are facing really significant challenges to meet the pressure of rising need, increasing cost of providing services and ongoing insufficient government funding.
 

“It is important that we take steps now to deliver services within our budget. The measures we are taking reflect the reality of current local government funding levels and we are working closely with other local authorities and with London-wide and national lobby groups to highlight the pressures being felt across the sector.”