Ceredigion’s council departments and staff have been praised after the council’s precarious financial situation moved from a predicted overspend of £1.5m to just £10,000, but the longer term is still challenging.

At the July 17 Ceredigion County Council Cabinet meeting, Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement Services Cllr Gareth Davies told members a £1.5m overspend had been predicted in the third quarter of the last financial year, with an even worse prediction in the second quarter of £2.7m.

A report for members said: “The final overall revenue outturn position to report for ‘23/24 is a small overspend of £10,000, against a ‘23/24 budget of £180.1m.

“This position is after allowing for a transfer of £250,000 into reserves in relation to the April 2024 pay award. The final position results in the council’s General Balances remaining broadly unchanged at £6.7m, equating to 3.5 per cent of the 24/25 budget (therefore still being within the target range of between three and five per cent).”

The report added: “There has been a multitude of budget pressures for services to contend with during the year, the majority of which then featured heavily in the 24/25 budget setting process.

“Recognising the challenging in year financial position, Leadership Group implemented a very proactive financial management approach in August 2023, having received input and advice from the Section 151 officer. This included measures ranging from using certain earmarked reserves, asking various services to make in year savings and putting financial controls in place on expenditure and recruitment (recognising though that core statutory, contractual and existing obligations need to be met).

“At the Q3 stage, all services were asked to continue to take actions wherever possible to improve the position by year-end. It is a credit to all corporate lead officers, their corporate managers and staff that the proactive approach (and the resulting controls implemented) has been successful in eliminating the £1.5m projected overspend.

“It is recognised though that most of these actions were in year and one-off and therefore do not generate ongoing base budget savings. It does however highlight how adept budget-holders need to be in a challenging financial landscape.

“The 24/25 financial year will require a similar approach in order to manage the delivery of the £5.8m budget reductions.”

The report concluded: “The 23/24 financial performance continues to demonstrate that the council’s overall financial position remains resilient and is being carefully and proactively managed through what is an incredibly challenging financial period.

“Services and their budget-holders have risen to the in-year challenge required of them by the Section 151 officer and Leadership Group and the improvement since Q3 is a considerable achievement. As the 24/25 budget setting process has shown, the financial outlook remains challenging both in terms of the delivering against the approved 24/25 budget and the wider medium term financial outlook.

“Staff in the Finance & Procurement Service will now concentrate on producing the formal Statement of Accounts ready for external audit by Audit Wales in due course.”

Chief Executive Eifion Evans compared Ceredigion's position with other local authorities in Wales; Pembrokeshire's overspend, after an offset overpayment was included, reducing to £1.4m from a quarter three prediction of £6.6m.