'Herculean effort' delivers council £2m underspend

A "Herculean effort" has seen Middlesbrough Council end the 2024/25 year with an underspend of more than £2m.

- By DANIEL HODGSON Local democracy reporter [e-mail]

Following the use of £4.7m exceptional financial support from the Government to set a balanced budget back in early 2024 (amidst a wider agreement for £13.4m support), there has been scrutiny of the council to see whether they would stay within budget and how much financial support would need to be used. While it appeared that there was going to be a multi-million pound overspend in September 2024, the quarterly reports from the council have shown sustained improvement, which brings the town up to the year-end figures.

At a meeting of Middlesbrough's Labour Executive on Wednesday, Cllr Nicky Walker, member for finance, told her fellow Executive members that the council had an underspend of £2.257m, which equates to 1.6% of the total revenue budget.