Council hears overspend reduced to £2.6m

A cash-strapped council has reported a "significant improvement" in its predicted budget overspend.

Peterborough City Council heard how the authority's year-end position for 2025-26 was an overspend of £2.6m against a £202m revenue budget (about 1.3% over budget).

Labour cabinet member for finance, Mohammed Jamil, said the council was "forecasting a significant revenue overspend during the past year... this peaked to a forecast of £7m as recently as November 2025".

He said the reduction had been achieved by "positive action taken across the organisation to address the council's financial challenges during the year".

Jamil told Tuesday's cabinet meeting: "Today I can report that we have finished the year with a much reduced overspend of £2.6m."

This figure is a £3.3m improvement on the £5.9m overspend Jamil last reported in December, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

While he acknowledged the council's financial position was "not where we want to be," he said the report represented a "significant improvement" in the authority's fiscal affairs.

Jamil said savings on some services and the use of grants had been important tools to help navigate a "really challenging" financial year.

However, the report also showed that only 71% of the planned savings programme was achieved, leaving £6.6m of savings still to be addressed.

He highlighted some of the "key service pressures" such as children's services, income shortfalls, borrowing costs and legal costs, which he said remained a priority for the council's long-term financial sustainability.

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