West Northamptonshire Council's provisional end-of-year financial position for 2025-26

Cabinet members will this week receive West Northamptonshire Council's provisional end-of-year financial position for 2025-26, which shows an overspend of £7m against the Council's £431.8m net revenue budget - equivalent to 1.6% of total spending.

The Council has reduced the earlier forecast overspend by £2.5m since December through a number of initiatives, in order to minimise the overspend by as much as possible.  

The primary pressure continues to be in children's and adults' social care. The Northamptonshire Children's Trust, which provides children's social care across West and North Northamptonshire, has seen placement costs rise sharply as both the number and complexity of children requiring specialist care continues to grow.  

In Adult Social Care, nursing bed placements following hospital discharge increased by 23% in the year, while provider costs were driven up by the 6.7% rise in the National Living Wage. These pressures are being experienced by councils across England. 

Within the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) the Council continues to report a material deficit balance, which has grown nationally due to a steep rise in the number of children requiring Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP’s). West Northamptonshire has seen an 88% increase in EHCPs since the Council was formed in 2021 - one of the highest rates in the country - while government funding has not kept pace with demand. The requirement to fund this deficit balance continues to impact the Council’s overall financing requirements and treasury costs within the provisional outturn. 

In February 2026, the Government announced the High Needs Stability Grant to address this national problem, and WNC expects to receive around £50m through this scheme in 2026-27, timing of which is dependant on successful approval of the Council’s Local SEND reform plan. This funding will substantially reduce the accumulated deficit. 

On the positive side, the Council's Housing Revenue Account - which manages its social housing stock - not only balanced but generated a surplus of £4.3m, which has been placed into reserves to support future housing investment. The Place and Economy directorate delivered savings of £3.7m against budget, and the Resources directorate came in £5.1m under budget. 

This is a provisional outturn that reflects genuinely difficult conditions, not just here but across local government nationally. We inherited a budget that had already been set by the council, and it became clear early in the financial year that it was already under pressure. We have been working to address that in a year when demand and costs for the most significant services has continued to rise at a much greater rate than anticipated when the budget was set.
We delivered over £20m of savings, we balanced our housing account with a surplus, and we kept the overall overspend to 1.6% of budget. That is not comfortable, but it reflects an organisation working hard in very difficult circumstances.
The growth in children requiring specialist SEND support is a national crisis that local government has been left to manage with insufficient funding. The Government's announcement of the High Needs Stability Grant is a significant and welcome step, and we will be making the case strongly for West Northamptonshire's fair share.
We will not pretend the challenges are over - they are not. But we will continue to be transparent with residents about what we are dealing with and the steps we are taking to address it.Councillor John Slope, Cabinet Member for Finance

Cabinet will consider the provisional outturn at its meeting at The Forum in Towcester on Tuesday 9 June from 6pm. The agenda is available on the Council's website, and the meeting will be broadcast live on WNC's YouTube channel.