West Sussex County Council expects to finish this financial year with a £23.3m overspend to its budget.
The figures were shared by Jeremy Hunt, cabinet member for finance, during a meeting of the performance & finance scrutiny committee on Friday (March 6).
The overspend, as of December, was £3.6m higher than reported at the end of September and represents 2.8 per cent of the overall budget. The gap will be plugged using the £10m contingency budget, the £6m social care reserve, with the other £7.3m likely to be covered by other reserves.
Mr Hunt said the year continued to be ‘financially challenging’, with the ever-increasing cost of social care being the biggest issue.
The adult services portfolio is forecast to be £12m overspent by the end of March, with the demand for help from vulnerable people such as the elderly or disabled increasing.
Despite efforts to bring costs under control, the children & young people portfolio is set for a £16.5m overspend – an increase of £5.7m since the end of September.
Mr Hunt added: “Again, it seems to be down to increasing numbers. Especially it seems to be a high proportion of asylum children around the ages of 16 to 17.”
There was one positive bit of news for the highways team, which is expected to be overspent by £1.085m. The council received an extra £2.4m in the government’s financial settlement and will put the money towards the highways budget in 2026/27.
This will increase the amount put into highways maintenance to just under £7.5m.
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