A 'grim read': that's the description of Crawley Borough Council's budget for the past year

Conservative leader Duncan Crow made the observation during a meeting of the cabinet on Wednesday (July 24) when looking at the figures for the financial year ending March 31.

Since the budget for 2023/24 was set, the council’s financial situation – like that of so many other local authorities across the country – has ‘deteriorated significantly’.

Crawley ended the year with a £3.755m overspend, the vast majority of which related to housing.

This was actually a £148,000 improvement on what had been predicted in December.

Other pressures included pay and the increasing cost of providing council services – though more than £1.3m of this was offset by income from investments.

And, while the £911,000 overspend on the new town hall left Mr Crow ‘disappointed’, the biggest cost pressure by far was the £3.08m overspend on homelessness and temporary accommodation.

Leader Michael Jones said it had been an ‘extremely challenging year’ for the council – one in which the authority declared a housing emergency.

He described the cost of temporary housing as ‘not sustainable’, adding that it ‘poses a critical risk to the council’s financial resillience’.

The cabinet approved the moving of £67,000 from its allotments budget to help pay for a master-plan laying out proposed improvements to Goffs Park.