Telford & Wrekin Council feeling cost of living pressure with additional £3.8million needed for children’s safeguarding
Cost-of-living pressures are being felt by a council which says it is finding savings elsewhere to keep its budget balanced.
Telford & Wrekin Council is having to find an additional £3.8million to support children’s safeguarding this financial year and needs to put an extra £2.8m into adult social care to meet demand.
The first monitoring report of the 2023/24 financial year was presented to councillors at their full council meeting last week.
Cllr Nathan England, cabinet member for finance, said that since the budget was prepared inflation and interest rates had ‘increased significantly’ but they still expected to end the financial year within budget.
“We’ve also seen significant demand for key services partly driven by the cost-of-living pressures faced by our residents,” said Cllr England. “The estimated additional costs for the 2023/24 Pay Award is £2.7m which is largely driven by the significant increase in national living wage due to the high inflation rates.
“Because of the pressures that we and most other councils are facing this year which are driven by national issues all services have been asked to take early action to identify savings that can be used to offset the pressures.
