More people with complex care needs are adding to the pressure on Brighton and Hove City Council’s strained finances, according to a senior councillor.
Labour deputy leader Jacob Taylor told his fellow council cabinet members that, halfway through the current financial year, the council is at risk of ending the year £40 million in the red.
And the biggest single area of overspending was adult social care which is projected to be £14 million over budget as more people need care.
Six months into the 2026-27 financial year, the council’s “general fund” for frontline services was at risk of overspending by £26.5 million, with potential “additional risks” totalling £14 million.
A newly published report said the outlook had worsened over the past month by £1.3 million.
At a meeting of the council’s cabinet on Thursday, November 12, Cllr Taylor, who leads on finance, said that a “good chunk” of that £1.3 million resulted from changes in the fees charged by care providers.
He said 3,850 people received support from the council’s adult social care services in June – up from 3,750 in February – and that “unit costs” had risen in that time as well.
Cllr Taylor said: “We know that many of the people coming into the service, they are the higher-demand service users, with higher net unit costs.
“That’s what’s driving the increased pressure in adult social care – a large forecast financial risk – £14 million – driven by vulnerable adults coming into the service – more than we had expected and unit costs going up.”
Last month, when Green councillor Ollie Sykes said the financial position was “lamentable”, Cllr Taylor said the council was asking the government for a £30 million bailout.
Cllr Taylor added: “What would Cllr Sykes like us to do to exert financial control? Would he kick those people out of the services they’re using?
“Kick them out of the city perhaps? Slash the provider fees that we provide that enable us to pay the national living wage? Is that’s what’s being proposed by the Green Party?”
Cllr Taylor said there were no plans for slash-and-burn cuts to balance the budget and no plans to “salami-slice” services for the most vulnerable.
His approach, he said, was to focus on lobbying for the right financial settlement – and this had proved successful in securing funds to tackle homelessness and support the government’s ambition to create a national care service.
Read more
Cllr Taylor said council services needed to transform and it was important to try to “intervene early” to prevent people needing care when they reached a crisis point.
He criticised Cllr Sykes for saying that there was an i360-sized financial gap in the “in-year position”.
Cllr Taylor said: “(That’s) an extraordinary comparison from somebody who was one of the engineers of that decision to lend money to a private company which we then lost very significant amounts of.
“It is an extraordinary performance and an extraordinary thing to say and a line to draw when you actually look at the detail of what’s happening.”
Labour council leader Bella Sankey said: “We’re absolutely right to focus on deep roots and long-term transformation of services alongside the lobbying he mentioned to resolve the financial situation that we find ourselves in.
“One of the lessons of this authority is that the salami-slice approach to making savings and efficiencies can sometimes leave you spending more in the long run because it isn’t the strategic approach.”
Share