Fareham Borough Council facing £6m budget black hole as costs continue to increase

Five-year funding forecasts for Fareham Borough Council indicate that there are a number of spending pressures facing the council, while ‘unavoidable’ costs continue to increase.

SEE ALSO: Waterlooville police officer accused of raping woman said 'I can't stop, it feels so good', court heard

Speaking to executive members, councillor Sean Woodward, leader of the council said: ‘Looking ahead we’re looking at some very significant issues indeed, this year in the current financial year, we’re having to remove more than £1m from our reserves simply to balance the budget so thank goodness we do have some usable reserves.

‘In the next financial year, we’re looking at having to remove nearly £500,000 from our reserves again to be able to balance the budget and then, that’s the end really, all of our usable reserves will be gone and we’re looking then over this five year period at something like a £6m shortfall in our funding.

‘We are going to have a look very carefully at the services we deliver and how they are delivered because of course many of the services we deliver are not statutory.

‘We’re going to be looking into sources of income like how we can raise further income as a council to be able to expend what we do on services.

‘We are talking about revenue services, we’re not talking about capital programmes like Ferneham Hall or Daedalus or anything else, this is just running the day-to-day services.

‘A very significant funding shortfall is coming upon us and we’re going to have to look very carefully over the next 12 months at how we are going to fill those gaps.

‘We have been here before and we have done this successfully before but I know that it’s going to be probably the hardest year that we’ve been here within the memory of anyone around this table.’

SEE ALSO: Gosport's Little Crickets pre-school determined to stay open amid cost of living crisis

It comes as the council opts to increase fees and charges for beach huts and coastal parking in a bid to generate additional cash.

The five-year projection set out the anticipated levels of funding based on the latest information on the government’s funding intentions. The council’s position on the 2023/24 financial year will become clearer when the government releases its spending plans.