In March 2025, Knowsley Council set a balanced budget for the year ahead with no need for cuts to services or jobs and investment into priority areas.
Now, a report considered by the Council’s Cabinet confirms that, despite rising demand and increasing costs throughout the year, the Council has been able to maintain a balanced position at year end.
The report profiles £217 million (now £251 million) worth of costs over the last 12 months including £67 million (now £101 million gross expenditure) allocated for adults needing social care support (the increase relates to gross expenditure) and more than £79 million for children and young people’s services.
In addition, £21 million has gone into communities & neighbourhoods – including targeted domestic abuse support – and £19 million invested in regeneration and economic development.
Cllr Jayne Lonergan, Knowsley Council’s Cabinet Member for Resources commented:
“It has once again been a hugely challenging year with growing demand for services and support across the board.
For the Council in particular, unavoidable costs in children’s services and adult social care have placed a real pressure on our finances. To be in a position of balancing our budget at year end has not been one reached without considerable effort – across all council services. Like any organisation, when we have to spend more than we planned in one area, we have to tighten our belts in another. For a local authority whose communities rely on us for support, that can be really hard to do – especially when our budgets have been reduced year on year for more than a decade.”
The report confirms the Council has had to manage pressure of more than £7 million (3.6% of the Council’s total budget) in the last year due specifically to additional demand and increased costs from children and young people’s services, home to school transport and adult social care.
This has been partially offset by surpluses from other areas of the Council and from utilising additional contingency budgets that the Council set aside to manage unforeseen risks such as high price inflation.
Cllr Lonergan added: “It is a significant achievement to have a balanced position at year end but make no mistake, the coming years will be just as challenging if not more so. We have always had a really strong approach to financial management here in Knowsley which means we are in a far better financial position than most councils and I am certain that will continue. We will also continue to lobby hard to ensure the Government provide fair funding that reflects the needs of our communities here in Knowsley.”