City Councillors will meet next week to consider what further steps need to be taken to tackle a £23m overspend in the authority’s budget caused by issues affecting councils across the country, including an increased demand for children’s and adults’ social care, rising homelessness presentations and the impact of inflation. The council’s Chief Finance Officer issued a Section 114 Report on 29 November due to the council being unable to meet the legal requirement to deliver a balanced budget for this year. Following the Section 114 Report, the council entered into a 21 day Prohibition Period where spending controls already in place have been further tightened with any spending not already contractually committed, or otherwise agreed by the Chief Finance Officer in his role as Section 151 Officer, immediately stopped. Within the 21 day period, the council is required to hold a meeting of all councillors to confirm whether or not it accepts the report and to agree what actions, if any, it proposes to implement. This meeting is due take place on 18 December when a recommendation will be considered to take immediate steps to mitigate the forecast overspend through the council’s Financial Recovery Plan and to continue the Spend Control Policy introduced by the Section 151 Officer until 31 March 2025 subject to further reviews. Under the Spend Control Policy, ‘allowable spending’ is being approved where it is essential to meet the council’s legal duties at the minimum level or to meet existing legal commitments; externally funded spending, where the council would lose external funding if approval were not given; and spend where there is a robust business case. Other steps proposed include a review of council’s capital programme to assess whether borrowing can be stopped or delayed and borrowing costs reduced including through the sale of assets currently owned by the authority. In addition, a request for Exceptional Financial Support for the current financial year 2023/24 is being discussed with the Government Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities. In practical terms this will be to seek permission to ‘capitalise’ revenue expenditure so that it is treated as capital expenditure and can be met from the council’s capital resources. A Section 114 Report does not mean the council is “bankrupt” or insolvent, the council has stressed. It has sufficient financial resources to meet all of its current obligations, to continue to pay staff, suppliers and grant recipients in this year. Although not the cause of the overspend, past issues relating to financial governance which led to the appointment of an Improvement and Assurance Board, and an overspend in the last financial year have impacted on the council’s financial resilience and ability to draw on reserves.

Medilink Midlands and Health Innovation East Midlands (formerly East Midlands Academic Health Science Network – EMAHSN) have joined forces to launch a new programme designed to support and accelerate health innovations in the region. The Health Innovation Fund offers support of between £5,000 and £10,000 to enable East Midlands-based SMEs or businesses working with East Midlands healthcare system partners to further advance disruptive innovations that are ripe for NHS uptake and have significant potential for rapid economic return for the region. Launching on 1 January 2024, the Fund is seeking late-stage innovations that are market ready but require an injection of funding to overcome barriers to market entry for successful deployment and scale with the potential for rapid economic return for the region. Applications can come from any area of technology relevant to the health and care sector but must demonstrate system interest and how the business is approaching net zero and patient and public involvement. Commenting on the launch of the Health Innovation Fund, Jo Maltby, head of innovation at Medilink Midlands, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be partnering with Health Innovation East Midlands on this exciting new programme that gives eligible SMEs, an opportunity to accelerate their health innovations. “We are looking for late-stage innovations that are market ready but require an injection of funding and specialist support to overcome barriers to market entry to enable their successful deployment and scale. “Medilink Midlands has established a longstanding and impactful working relationship with Health Innovation East Midlands (formerly EMAHSN) that continues to evolve through new and ongoing collaborative projects. “The HIEM was a key strategic partner for Medilink’s ERDF-funded business support projects from its inception in 2014 through to its completion in June 2023. Through this collaboration, we helped to create 208 jobs, delivered over 8,000 hours of business support, facilitated 79 university collaborations, supported 391 businesses on a 1:1 basis, and delivered 180 events. “We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Health Innovation East Midlands through this new programme. Offering our combined business support and innovation expertise to aid the development of some of the region’s most innovative businesses and drive connectivity and collaboration in the life sciences ecosystem.” Alison Mlot, commercial manager at Health Innovation East Midlands, said: “We recognise the gap in seed funding for SMEs to support and accelerate the adoption of innovations into the NHS. In collaboration with Medilink Midlands, we are investing in innovative market-ready products and services with significant potential to positively impact the health and care system and bring about economic return for the East Midlands.” Applications are open from 1 January 2024 and will close on 1 March 2024.

As the crisis in local government funding continues to impact on councils across the country, Nottingham City Council has highlighted it faces a £50 million gap in its budget next year, 2024/25, which will have a major impact on its services. A report to the council’s Executive Board on 19 December sets out a range of initial proposals put forward by council officers to make the savings needed to close the budget gap and balance the budget for 2024/25, which is a legal requirement for all councils. Last month, the council’s chief finance officer issued a Section 114 Report due to the authority not being able to deliver a balanced budget for the current year. Major pressures affecting local government nationally, including the cost of increased demand for children’s and adults’ social care and rising homelessness presentations, have led to a £23 million overspend this year and whilst the council is working to reduce this through enhanced spending controls, some of these underlying pressures will continue to affect the budget next year. Last year, services for adults, children and housing and homelessness accounted for 62.5% of the council’s revenue budget. Since 2013/14, the council’s Revenue Support Grant (RSG) from Government has reduced by £97 million every year. Over the same period, Nottingham’s ‘Core Spending Power’, a measure used by Government which also includes income from Council Tax, business rates and other grants, has reduced by 28.2% in real terms compared to 19.4% for all councils in England, according to SIGOMA, the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities. Although not the cause of the overspend in the current year, past issues in the council’s financial governance which led to the appointment of an Improvement and Assurance Board have reduced its financial resilience and ability to draw on reserves. In order to bridge the large budget gap faced, officers have put forward proposals for consideration by councillors which is now subject to public consultation. The proposals for consultation involve managing demand, increasing charges, reducing costs, reducing services to a statutory minimum and in some cases ceasing services and funding altogether. They include:

• Review Library Service provision whilst maintaining a comprehensive and efficient service offer appropriate to the needs of citizens
• Removing the council contribution towards Area Based Grants to the voluntary and charity sector and grants to arts organisations and cultural sector
• Deletion of both the Community Protection and Resident Development service areas with approximately 20 FTE posts moved to Regulatory Services to delivery statutory duties relating to environmental enforcement and antisocial behaviour
• Reviewing the operation of community centres and seek to remove council subsidised grants
• Reduce public transport infrastructure to minimum statutory provision including the removal of funding to operate two bus-based park and ride sites, Victoria Bus Station and the real time passenger information system
• Reduce all linkbus services to statutory minimum provision, remove Easylink and withdraw funding contribution to the Medilink service
• Moving to the minimum statutory provision of Concessionary Fares for which would remove the concession from the tram and companion pass holders and funding for managing the Robin Hood Scheme
• Re-structure and reduce tiers and overall capacity in Adult Social Care Assessment function
• Closure of Colwick Park Activity Centre
• Ending school uniform support for eligible families if the Household Support Fund grant does not continue
• A reduction in council staffing levels of over 500 full-time equivalent posts. Every effort will be made to limit compulsory redundancies through targeted voluntary redundancy
• A proposed Council Tax increase of 4.99% which includes the 2% Adult Social Care precept permitted by the Government

Cllr David Mellen, the Leader of Nottingham City Council, said: “Every day now, headlines tell of the crisis in local government funding and the impact this is having on councils across the country. “In Nottingham, a Section 114 had had to be issued for the current year as the cost of providing care for adults and children and people presenting as homeless has meant we simply can’t balance our budget this year. “This needs to be seen in the context of our main grant from Government being cut by nearly £100m each and every year since 2013 and the failure to properly address the issues facing both the adults and children’s care system nationally with rising demand and costs overwhelming council budgets. “As things stand, unfortunately the budget pressures we are seeing are unlikely to reduce next year and like many councils, we are facing a serious gap in our budget for 2024/25. “This means officers have had to put forward proposals for significant savings and service reductions which no-one would want to make but have to be considered by councillors if the council is to meet its legal requirement to set a balanced budget. “The proposals include some valued services and funding that we have been able to continue to provide in Nottingham but have already been stopped by many other councils. Some of the proposals reluctantly have support from the Majority Group on the council, whereas others do not have that support at this stage. We are seeking views of the public on all proposals put forward. “All of our services are important to us as councillors. Like many other councils, we are the faced with some extremely tough decisions over the coming months with our budget gap next year being the worst in living memory. But we are all in this position due to the continued underfunding of local government over many years and the huge increases we are seeing in demand for services as a result of the national cost of living and housing crises. “We want to be open and transparent about the scale of the challenge the council faces and the difficult decisions that need to be made and give people the chance to have their say. “After the initial proposals being put forward by officers have been considered by councillors at the meeting on 19 December, a public consultation will take place before any final decisions are made when the budget for 2024/25 is set in February.”

Image Scan’s CEO is “pleased” by the X-ray screening systems supplier’s profitable results.

According to preliminary results for the year ended 30 September 2023, sales at the firm were up 50% to £3m. Meanwhile the company posted a pre-tax profit £0.1m, improving from a £0.35m loss in the year prior.

This performance “was the result of a strong recovery in sales and good cost control,” the business noted.

Image Scan’s Chief Executive, Vince Deery, said: “I’m very pleased by our results, a testament to the team’s tireless efforts for a profitable year. New products and an optimised cost base significantly contributed to this turnaround.

“Our extended portable product range for the security market gained traction, resulting in a substantial uplift in sales compared to the previous year. With a robust operational and financial foundation, we look forward to the coming year, aiming for organic growth and strategic development.

“My sincere thanks to the team for their commitment in propelling us into profitability.”