Wirral council finances - £3 million ray of hope breaks through gathering dark clouds

Wirral Council has announced a major boost in its finances, just over a week after a damning report into the local authority.

Last Tuesday, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy published the document which included strong criticism of elected councillors and officers.

It stated that the 'prevailing culture' at the council prior to the pandemic had been to avoid difficult financial decisions, meaning the council's emergency reserves had been dramatically reduced in recent years.

The report also stated that to address shortfalls in its budget the authority needed to consider selling its libraries, leisure centres, golf courses and Wallasey and Birkenhead Town Halls.

Reacting to the report last week, Paul Satoor, Wirral Council's chief executive, said: "We will take time to fully digest the findings and recommendations made in these reviews."

Up until last night's Policy and Resources Committee meeting, Wirral Council said it needed a £10.7m loan, or 'capitalisation directive', from the government to make its sums add up.

But speaking in the meeting at New Brighton's Floral Pavilion, Shaer Halewood, the director of resources for the authority, said Wirral Council's finances have improved by more than £3m between July and September, mostly due to extra government support to help deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The council has seen more than £200m of its central government funding cut since 2010 – and is currently trying to find a further £30m of savings ahead of its next budget, but yesterday's news was more positive for the local authority.

Around £1m of the additional £3m Wirral Council has received has been given as support for dealing with homelessness, while the other £2m was related to budget pressures resulting from the pandemic.

Ms Halewood added that this meant the council was now asking for a £7.2m loan from the government rather than the original amount of £10.7m.

While some may have hoped the extra money from government could be used to boost the council's finances and potentially help it to avoid selling off libraries and leisure centres, the director of resources said this was not possible.

Ms Halewood said that any improvement in the authority's finances had to be used to reduce the loan it would receive from the government.