Council faces 'challenging' £82m budget shortfall

A council is facing an £82m budget gap in the year it was due to be abolished under now-paused plans to radically reshape local government.

Medway Council had believed it would no longer need exceptional financial support (EFS) from central government after years of finding savings to balance the books.

But the authority's medium-term financial outlook now anticipates shortfalls totalling £360m over the next five years – on top of the £26m it expects to overspend this year.

With the possibility of effective bankruptcy if it cannot balance the books for next year, its leader Vince Maple said: "There is no denying we're in a challenging financial situation."

Since February 2024, Medway Council has used a total of £60.6m in EFS – which allows authorities to borrow money to cover day-to-day spending, something not normally allowed – in return for making long-term sustainability changes to its finances.

Maple previously said he was confident the budget for 2026-27 would be the last which would require the support, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

But the new projections anticipate the ever-growing pressure from adult and children's social care – which swallows around three-quarters of the authority's budget – will increase from £383m in 2026-27 to £511m in 2030-31.

Describing services like adult social care as "difficult", Maple added: "You can put all of the provisions in place, but you may have one or two individual cases which disproportionately pressurise the purse of the council.

"We want to make sure that those individuals get the very best care that they can, but that comes at a cost."

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