Despite £22m of savings planned next year Barnet Council’s budget gap is set to rise to £36m, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Barnet Council’s budget gap for next year could increase to £36million as efforts to find further savings ramp up. 

The council’s cabinet heard a report on the financial planning for 2025/26 last night (Thursday 5th) which included £22m of savings.

The focus on cuts was made clear by cabinet member for finance, Ammar Naqvi, who said despite earlier calculations of a £29m deficit for 2025/26 this figure could now increase to £36m. 

He referred to a “refreshed” medium term financial strategy (MTFS) in the report, which set out £22m of savings but still left a residual £36m gap.

The meeting heard the “perfect storm” that was “spiraling” temporary accommodation costs, adult social care costs and the inflation impacted costs of placements for children that made up the financial “context”.

Explaining the budget gap increase, Cllr Naqvi said: “We made certain assumptions based on the autumn government budget and set out certain possible mitigations we could avail ourselves of to reduce the budget gap from that £52m down.”

The council’s MTFS strategy identifies an increasing budget gap year on year starting at £52m in 2025/26 and growing to £100m by 2029/30, which will need to be met by cuts, council tax rises and extra government funding.

However, it transpired that certain mitigations were not going to be available to the council. These were “red-rated”, explained Cllr Naqvi.

He said: “There was an outside chance they could potentially yield a benefit for us and, as we’ve discovered, they will not. So the overspend that we’re actually looking to face is closer to £36m. 

“It is not a situation to be taken lightly, which is why every stone is being unturned and every option is on the table.”

The £22m identified “represents difficulty”, explained Cllr Naqvi.

Cash-raising plans include increasing council tax and restructuring library services which “may impact service delivery”, the report stated, but would not have an “adverse impact on customer satisfaction”. 

The council is consulting on a proposal to increase council tax by 4.98% and looking at restructuring its library strategy which will “protect the number of libraries while reducing the number of opening hours”. 

Cllr Naqvi said: “It’s important to remember this is the first stage of the budget setting process. 

“We will know more once the local government finance settlement is made more apparent to us [due on 19th December] and we move into the more detailed portion of the budget setting in the new year.”

Council leader Barry Rawlings said: “We must never forget the national context of 14 years of local governments being hollowed out from a financial point of view, plus the shock of a big rise in interest rates and inflation, soon after we [the Labour group] took over.

“Since then [2022] we’ve had a lot of unfunded promises so there’s quite a bit of mess to clear up but I’d say this shows that we’re determined to work on it, it’s our job to find a solution.”

No news is bad news 

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts. 

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less. 

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation. 

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit 

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else. £84 annual supporters get a print copy by post and a digital copy of each month's before anyone else.

More information on supporting us monthly 

More Information about donations