County council's 'stabilisation plan' has saved £1.3m - but there's still £18m to go

The plan, announced in early October, identified up to £20 million of savings for 2018/19.

And the county council’s cabinet was this afternoon told that £1.3 million of those savings have already been delivered.

But using a traffic light system that rates the likelihood of realising the further savings, a remaining £14.9 million are rated as ‘amber’, and £3.7 million are rated red.

The red ratings will ‘need to be mitigated’ according to the report seen by councillors.

Of the £1.3 million saved so far, £700,000 has come out of adult social services, £500,000 has been saved through treasury insurance and technical services, and £96,000 from LGSS.

Speaking at One Angel Square, cabinet member for finance Councillor Malcolm Longley said: “We have still got many issues, but the important point I want to make is that there are many strands of work on this.”

As well as tackling the overspend for this year, the stabilisation plan so addresses the £35.3 million unfunded deficit from the last financial year (2017/18).

The overall deficit, including that brought forward from 17/18, now stands at £53.4 million, which is £10.7 million down from where it was in July when the council effectively banned new expenditure with a second section 114 notice.