Council warns it may need another £57m in government financial support

Opposition Lib Dems call for independent experts to be brought in to help get the council’s finances back on track, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

George Meehan House with (left) Dana Carlin and (right) Luke Cawley-Harrison

Haringey Council’s Labour administration is calling for tens of millions of financial help from the government.

In a report published this month the council warned its draft budget for 2026/27 could fall short by “at least £57m”.

The warning is based on the current situation, before the council knows how much government grant funding it will get next year. However, the report states that “if the proposals do not change, the council will not be in a position to set a balanced budget next year without significant new exceptional financial support (EFS) of at least £57m”.

This would come on top of the EFS provided by the Treasury for the current financial year, which amounts to £37m.

Luke Cawley-Harrison, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats group in Haringey, asked the council’s cabinet for finance Dana Carlin on Monday (24th) what would be the “annual and total cost to repay this debt”.

Explaining that £143m had been “cut from our government grant since 2010”, Cllr Carlin said: “At the same time we have seen […] a 24% increase in the number of over-65s and increasing numbers coming to the council for support more recently for adult social services and temporary accommodation.

“The cost of providing these services continues to rise, 80% of our service budget is spent on adult and children’s social care and temporary accommodation.

“Work is being done across the council to reduce our spending, including a spend control panel that scrutinises every non-essential payment over £1,000. A recruitment panel that challenges all staffing requests, every payment over £25,000 has to be signed off by the [chief finance] officer and there is a financial improvement board of senior officers.”

The report predicts a £6.1m interest charge for 2026/27 but this, Cllr Carlin states, is “subject to change” as “interest rates could go down” and the council is “doing everything we can in-year to reduce costs”.

Commenting ahead of the meeting, Cllr Cawley-Harrison said the Lib Dems wanted independent experts to be brought in to help get the council’s finances back on track, but this idea was rejected by the Labour administration.

He also said that the council’s “hopes of a silver bullet under a Labour government are not just dashed – but set to strip them of funding”.

The Labour government is expected to announce the outcome of its Fair Funding Review next month, which will redistribute funding for local councils based on local deprivation levels. It has been speculated that many London boroughs could lose out under the review.

Defending the government during the meeting, Cllr Carlin said: “The government has listened very hard to the arguments that have been made by our borough and many others. The deprivation upon which the funding formula has been based has been changed and includes housing costs.

“We don’t know what that means for Haringey, the analysis is being done, but it will make a considerable difference given the levels of deprivation in the borough.”

The Haringey finance chief concluded: “The government does not want commissioners called in, the offer they’re giving us is EFS.”

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