Barking and Dagenham Council faces £28m budget gap for 2027 to 2028

Barking and Dagenham Council has to find almost £28m of savings and cuts to balance its budget for the next financial year, which runs from April 2027 to March 2028.

The council forecasts day-to-day spending of £331m that year against total funding of £303m. In February it had expected a gap of £6.2m.

Why Barking and Dagenham’s budget gap has grown

Papers put to council leaders on Tuesday 15 September blamed demand for essential services that keeps rising and growing more intense. Social care for both adults and children was singled out. Temporary housing also features, along with SEND provision, the support the council gives young people with special needs or a disability.

The report also looked beyond the town hall. It cited inflation, interest rates and fiscal policy at national level, and linked them to events including the US war on Iran.

Cllr Rocky Gill, the Labour councillor responsible for finance, said a balanced budget for next year could still be achieved, but only with difficult decisions. At a cabinet committee meeting he said the usual ways of saving money would not be enough, and that the council would have to change how it works to become more efficient. He said a government overhaul of council grants earlier this year had increased its funding by an estimated 11.5%, but that this fell well short of past funding cuts and rising demand.

Social care and children’s placements

Labour councillor Maureen Worby, who leads on adult social care, argued that the answer had to come from the national level. She said she was “confident” that reform being planned nationally would lead to fresh approaches to care, with councils and health services working together.

According to council leader Dominic Twomey, placing a child in a private care home now costs 25% more across London. He said the council would keep reducing its overspend and expected the figure to be much smaller by the end of the year.