Reading Borough Council is forecasting a £5 million overspend for the year after just three months due to escalating costs in looking after children and preventing homelessness.
A financial report has recently been presented to the council on its performance for the first three months of the financial year.
The council is forecasting an overspend of £5.334 million due to budget pressures the council has encountered so far.
These figures featured in a report on the council’s performance for Quarter 1 of 2026/27, which covered April to June this year.
One of the causes of this pressure is the cost of home-to-school transport, both due to the increase in children with education, health and care (EHC) plans stating that they require such transport, and the cost of providing that transport as well.
The report was presented to the council’s policy committee meeting on September 16.
During the presentation, Gavin Handford, director of policy, change and customer services, highlighted some of the successes in Q1, such as the opening of the new Central Library in the council offices, and an increase in household waste being recycled and composted.
However, concerns remain about the council’s objective to tackle homelessness.
Councillor Rob White (Green, Park) pointed out that approximately £30 million of spending on council housing to both increase its supply and make repairs to existing stock was being pushed into future years.
He also claimed that rough sleeping is at an all-time high, with 43 people being counted as rough sleeping during a single-night survey in November last year.
To that, Matt Yeo (Labour, Caversham), lead councillor for housing, stated 44 homelessness preventions were made in August, with the council averaging 25-40 homelessness preventions per month.
Liz Terry (Labour, Coley), the council leader, said: “We do have good plans to keep our stock well repaired, and we’ve had some issues, but we’ve seen significant progress in that, and the planned maintenance and other works coming through, so I feel ok about that.
“The new Prime Minister [Andy Burnham] made a priority of saying that we’ll get people off the streets where we can.
“And we have received additional funding, and that is working its way through the system.
“It’s not something that the public always seems to understand: that there are a cohort of people who won’t come off the streets easily.
“I’m not saying that we shouldn’t continue always to make sure there is an offer of a bed and support towards more sustainable living accommodation, but there is a challenge for us and that is very clear for us in the data.”
Changes to the council’s budget measures were approved by councillors during the meeting.
That included the write-off of £440,982.01 in business rates debt and £29,862.19 in sundry debts.
