Brighton and Hove City Council is the biggest employer in the city with a budget to match.

Even so, council finance staff were shocked to find last autumn the likely deficit at the end of the financial year would be £5.6 million.

They put into effect a rigorous programme of savings and efficiencies that reduced the sum by almost £4 million to a more manageable £1.8 million.

The council should never have run up such a high figure in the first place but does deserve credit for getting it down.

Some problems were out of its control, such as the number of people accepted as homeless, which is the biggest cause of the deficit.

But other overspending was down to waste and duplication. The real test will come during this financial year as to whether this has been cut down to size.