Wirral Council’s leader hit back at critics last night after being told to step aside
Councillors debating the future of Wirral Council in Wallasey Town Hall(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
Wirral Council faces another key test tonight, the day after its political leadership faced calls to resign and one councillor said it was “the most embarrassing day” in his time on the council. The local authority is expected to request a bailout of up to £40m to prop up its budget for the next two years.
This week is absolutely crucial for Wirral Council and its future, as it looks to avoid issuing a Section 114 notice – declaring effective bankruptcy. On January 14, the council’s external auditors Grant Thornton requested an emergency meeting as they are concerned the council can’t balance the books while the huge bailout request is expected to be made at a Policy and Resources committee meeting this evening.
A report, published ahead of the meeting has listed a number of recommendations including requesting a further request for up to £20m for the financial year from April 2025 to March 2026. The struggling council also plans to keep a spending freeze and recruitment controls in place “to limit expenditure to only absolute essential items” for this year and next year as well as issue redundancy notices if approved by councillors.
The £20m for this year will be used to mitigate the council’s budget black hole due to rising demand in social care while next year’s £20m would be used to “support the one-off transformation costs essential for driving service reform and operational efficiencies” as well as further social care costs.
The council’s most recent budget reports highlighting children’s and adults’ services now make up 72% of the council’s entire budget. Auditors also highlighted social care costs as the main drivers of the council’s problems in their report, though its neighbourhoods department is also expected to go £2.3m over budget.
Sarah Ironmonger from Grant Thornton said the era of easy solutions was over(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
On January 14, Sarah Ironmonger from Grant Thornton told councillors they would have to consider further action against the local authority if they didn’t accept their instructions to get a grip on the crisis. She said members needed to work cross-party, increase its reserves, and said the council had been too optimistic about reducing costs on children’s social care placements.
While she said many councils across the country were dealing with rising costs of adult social care, Ms Ironmonger said some were better equipped to deal with this because they had been able to transform their service quicker or had more reserves to buy them more time. Addressing councillors, she added: “It’s a very difficult landscape and the era of easy solutions is probably past us.”
Chief Executive Paul Satoor took questions from councillors during the meeting(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
The council’s top bosses also faced tough questions as chief executive Paul Satoor and finance director Matthew Bennett responded to councillor’s concerns. Cllr Kathy Hodson questioned why a freeze on non-essential council spending wasn’t introduced until September when the council was already expecting to over budget by £12.5m in July.
The latest forecasts based on spending between April and September show the council is due to go over budget by £21.5m and face a budget gap of around £36m for the next financial year. 77% of this year’s overspend is with public health, adult social care, and children’s services.
Mr Bennett said the freeze had proven to be “absolutely essential” this year and would likely be extended for another year, adding restrictions on council spending had been introduced long before the September announcement.
The finance boss also said a review of council finances for this financial year as well as the next from April 2025 would be published by March. However councillors raised that this could be after the council sets its budget for next year.
Wirral Council is also facing a £3m cost as a result of the government’s changes to National Insurance. This will be covered by the government but the local authority could face increased costs through its contracted services like bin collections or adult social care.
Political tensions also flared up at the meeting between Labour, Wirral’s largest party, and the Green Party. Criticising Cllr Paul Stuart, Cllr Jo Bird said the council “needs a new style of leadership” arguing money was being “wasted every single day while precious jobs and services are facing the chop.”
However these calls are unlikely to get wider political support as the Green Party also hit out at the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats during the meeting. Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Phil Gilchrist said they needed to work together “in the spirit of cooperation and not settle old scores.”
Conservative leader Cllr Jeff Green has also defended Cllr Stuart’s leadership repeatedly in the past, arguing this Labour leadership is different from previous administrations. At the meeting, he said: “We can sit here and blame each other but what I think the residents of Wirral want is action.”
Cllr Stuart also defended his party’s record at the meeting arguing every councillor was involved in decisions, adding: “It is time for political groups to stop blaming previous administrations for the difficult financial situation that the council finds itself in.” He said the Green Party was “taking no accountability” for its decisions.