With £39m extra needed for 2025/26 council finance chief admits only a quarter of savings have been found, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Haringey Council has forecasted around £39million of budget pressures in 2025/26 as its five-year outlook paints a “sobering picture”. 

Speaking at an overview and scrutiny meeting last week (Thursday 12th) the council’s director of finance Taryn Eves said in March only £10.4m of service pressure was identified.

However, it has now warned £39.6m will be required for the upcoming financial year and £75.2m over the next five years.

Breaking down the budget pressures for 2025/26, most of it comes from children’s services, with £5.8m needed; adult social services requires an extra £15.1m; and housing demand is up by £10.7m. 

The council’s current assumption is that £8.6m of savings for the next year will be “delivered in full” as well as £19.1m up to 2028/29.

This backdrop means the council has “at least” a £32m budget gap, which it will be working to close by February. 

Liberal Democrat councillor Pippa O’Connor asked, if the council “still hadn’t closed that gap” by February, what it would “need to do”.

Taryn said work in-year had to have “an immediate impact” and a lot of the savings the council had discussed for 2025/26 wouldn’t happen “right this minute”. 

She said the council was “challenging itself” to find “short-term solutions” and reviewing spending “line by line”. 

It had put “tighter controls” on its contract spend and was reviewing its “exhausted” reserves position, something it previously said it wouldn’t.

Cllr O’Connor questioned the council’s “sobering” £132m budget gap by 2029/30. She asked how the council was going to make up the gap even with reserves and extra government support.

Taryn said: “I have to be honest I don’t have the answer to the five-year position on the £132m. I think it is really important to acknowledge it is a practice to publish a five-year forecast.

“This is to give an impression that you know what is coming down the line but realistically my focus is on 2025/26 and 2026/27. I haven’t got an answer or close to one for the £132m, we need some fundamental change in the funding for local government to occur.”

The cabinet member for finance, Dana Carlin, said: “What we have to remember is the position the local government is in is because of 14 years of austerity.

“We just have to really remember public services are struggling and the cost of social care and social housing has gone through the roof even with extra funding and changes to funding formulas.”

The cost of temporary accommodation is up 8% across London, the report stated, and in Haringey the cost of adult social care is up 10%. The council also said its core government funding is £143m a year less in real terms than it was in 2010.

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, or one-off donation. 

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit 

More information on supporting us monthly 

More Information about donations