Nottingham City Council (NCC) has today issued a Section 114 notice due to the in-year budget overspend for 2023/24.
The reason for this is simple: demand for our services is rising while funding from the Government gets less in real terms each year. All councils are facing these pressures and many will be considering the issuing of a section 114.
The driving force has been pressures in Adult and Children’s social care and Homelessness, representing over 90% of the council’s in-year overspend.
This is happening at a time when we have had years of underfunding from the Tory government. Over the past ten years, we have received £100 million less each year in real terms than we did before 2013, representing a loss of a billion pounds. That is £694 less funding per resident each year. Councils cannot cope with an increase in demand coupled to a decrease in funding.
Over many years we have sought to protect as far as we can the services that the people of Nottingham rely on and are proud of, but the pressures that we are facing are now unmanageable.
These problems have been made worse by Liz Truss and her short-lived government that crashed our economy. Rishi Sunak has little interest in the needs of ordinary working people and cities like Nottingham. He cares only for the rich and prioritises keeping a failing Tory party together. David Cameron and George Osbourne began all of this with their obsession with austerity and after 13 years the consequence is local services slashed, soaring homelessness, sky-high rents and stagnating wages. They have brought the NHS to its knees, and they have left our rivers and waterways choking on sewage and pollution.
They have let down the people of Nottingham and our country. The only thing that will save local governments across the country from having to issue more and more section 114s in the future is a Labour Government and proper financial support and funding for local authorities.
Nottingham Labour is committed to continuing work for the people of our city and are currently undergoing the process to set a balanced budget for the next financial year.