Trafford is on course for a budget overspend of £1.75million driven by  ‘challenges’ to the authority’s children’s services – but the council leader has pledged ‘we will balance our budget’.

That was the picture presented at the town hall’s executive meeting where senior Coun Jo Harding spelled out the projected financial situation. 

Coun Harding, who is the executive member for finance, change and governance, said there were uncertainties and challenges facing local government in relation to interest rates and inflation.

“Some of those significant challenges that all local authorities are facing are in children’s [services].” she said.

“There is a national fear about how we protect our most vulnerable residents and how we prevent young people ending up in the care system.

“There is lots of work going on behind the scenes in children’s and high-needs services to mitigate the effects of savings.”

Meanwhile, council leader Coun Tom Ross said: “Local government funding has been in the news quite a lot recently, with several councils predicting quite significant overspends.

“We will ask our Conservative colleagues to prevail upon the Government   when it comes to the [local government support grant] settlement to make sure we get the funding that we need to deliver the services that the public expects from us.

“But even in these difficult times you have our assurance that we will continue to work incredibly closely with our officers to deliver a balanced budget.”

A report to the executive highlighted ‘management actions’ to mitigate the financial situation which had already been agreed and which will remain in place during the year.

This includes a policy on ‘vacancy management’ and a ‘review of non-essential spend which will remain in place for the foreseeable future’.

It said there would be additional focus on child placements and home-to-school transport which would include ‘alternative delivery models’.

“The scale of the challenge faced means that the council must continue to identify significant permanent savings, lobby the Government and address the unfairness of the funding formula and maintain prudent financial management,” the report said. 

Meanwhile,Trafford capital expenditure for big projects has fallen to £214m over the next three years, with this year’s allocation down from £91.5m, agreed in February, to £86m.