'Devon County Council is not going bankrupt' - John Hart

You may well have seen the news about Birmingham City Council effectively going bankrupt.

I would like to assure you that Devon County Council is not going bankrupt.

I hope regular readers of this column would agree that I do not use it for political posturing. The county council serves 850,000 people across Devon who vote for all the parties which stand for election every four years and I am grateful to the publishers for giving me the opportunity to report directly to you on what we are doing on your behalf.

I try to do that without indulging in political knockabout. But, for once, let me point out that it serves the opposition parties to try to suggest that Devon is going to hell in a handcart.

The record of the Conservative administration which I lead would suggest otherwise. Every year bar one - during the unique conditions caused by the pandemic - we have balanced our books whilst continuing to look after the old, the young and the vulnerable.

Even for the 22/23 financial year, with a potential black hole of well over £40 million projected last summer, we recorded a small surplus thanks to a massive effort by our staff to rein in costs and deliver services differently.

That wasn't easy. Every local authority in the country - like every family - faced the effects of the Covid pandemic and the worldwide consequences of Putin's war on Ukraine, leading to sky high inflation and rocketing energy prices.

Councils have also had to cope with rapidly rising demand for our services post-Covid from the most vulnerable children, families and older people in our communities.

Last year we had to take emergency action to deal with this. This year I believe we are much better prepared and work has been going on for some time on our budget for 2024/25 which we will finally decide next February. But, as with household and business budgets, the more time you have to prepare the better.

So earlier this month there was cross-party support in council for our strategic plan for the next 12 months which puts financial sustainability as our highest priority. And our Cabinet meeting last week put more flesh on this action.

The plan recognises we will have to accommodate continuing price rises and increases in the need for critical services across both adult and children’s social care. To do that we will need to achieve better value for money.

This will undoubtedly involve taking tough and potentially unpopular decisions but that’s what leadership is about. As I said, we balanced our budget this year and kept our council tax increase as low as we could whilst still fulfilling our responsibilities. At the same time we have also continued to make good progress on our pledge to be net carbon zero by 2030.

As for opposition claims that we are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, let me explain. In common with almost all top tier councils in the country, we are spending more on children with special needs. Partly that's because of an increase in need but it's also because 10 years ago the Government gave us responsibility for young people up to the age of 25 instead of 18. That represents a huge increase in the numbers we look after but we didn't get the extra money needed to go with it.

Again, in common with other councils, we are in complex and continuing negotiations with the Government about how they support us in resolving this and I intend to write more in a future column about spending on education.