Council finance chiefs were set to deliver an update on their £2.5 million overspend on Tuesday, January 23.

Bracknell Forest Council was last reported to be on course to spend between £1.25 million and £2.5 million more than it had planned to by April of this year.

Rising costs coupled with falling income means councils across Britain are face spending millions more than they had budgeted for – and scrambling for ways to cover costs in the future.

The figure was reported to the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Commission in November last year as part of a summary of Bracknell Forest’s performance between July and September.

Deputy chief executive said at the time that the overspend had fallen from an initial prediction of £4 million earlier in 2023 as a result of a squeeze on spending. But he said the new prediction of up to £2.5 million was still “significant.”

He said: “We are still working hard to bring it back in line because that has a knock-on impact onto next year’s budget because we will have to use some reserves to fund the current year’s budget.”

The same report was set to be presented to the council’s executive committee – its leading group of councillors – on Tuesday evening, January 24. It is likely that they will hear updates on what more finance chiefs have done to rein in spending.