Barnet Council accepts all 18 recommendations after government finance review

Barnet Council has accepted all 18 recommendations from a government review of its finances. The review concluded that the council lacked a credible savings plan and was still leaning on exceptional financial support from the government.

The housing and local government department, MHCLG, carried out the external assurance review as a condition of that support. Officials based it on desk research and on interviews with councillors held in April. The goal was to set out where the council stands financially and to give it a route to improvement. Almost half of the recommendations were rated nine out of ten for risk.

What the review found about Barnet’s finances

Explaining the ratings, the ministry cited “the absence of a credible and deliverable savings plan” and the council’s weakening financial resilience. It said reform of expensive services had not gone far enough, naming temporary accommodation, services for children and adult social care. Pressures from demand and the market were outstripping the pace of change.

The 2026/27 budget, covering the financial year that started in April, depends on £79.3m borrowed through exceptional financial support. It is the second year running the council has balanced its books this way. For 2025/26 it was given £55.7m, although it says only £45.9m of that was needed. The scheme allows councils to treat some day-to-day costs as longer-term capital spending, which is usually funded by borrowing. KPMG, working for neighbouring Haringey, estimated that every £1m borrowed like this could cost a council around £62,000 a year.

Figures published last month showed Barnet heading for the largest budget deficit of any London council by 2028. The shortfall is expected to reach almost £113.5m by the end of 2027/28. Only Hampshire County Council, at almost £180m, is forecast to be in a worse position in England.

Barnet Council leader responds

Barry Rawlings, who leads the council’s Labour minority administration, told a cabinet meeting last week that the report did not fully account for work already in progress, including measures brought in after the review ended. He said the council’s goal was financial sustainability “because everything else we want to do fails without that”.

Simon Radford, the cabinet member for financial sustainability, and senior officers must submit progress reports to the ministry by the end of September. Peter Zinkin, the Conservative opposition leader, asked why no draft of that update had been made available at the meeting.