Barnsley Council force to spend £17m of reserves to balance books last year
An audit of the local authorities finances has found it overspent by around £18m throughout the year
Barnsley Council had to spend more than £17m of savings to balance its books last year, as a local government watchdog warns that using reserves is ‘not the solution’ for cash-strapped local authorities.
An audit of last year’s spending by Barnsley Council found that the authority overspent by £18m during the 2023/24 financial year.
To cover the overspend, finance bosses used £17.3m of council reserves – and an additional £11.8m on top of the £5.5m they had already planned to use.
By the end of the financial year. BMBC had spent £260.3 million in total.
One of the largest overspends came in the children’s services budget, which saw an increase in costs of £17.1 million. BMBC also spent £107.5 million on capital projects, such as road infrastructure and housing improvements.