Redbridge Council has been forecast to overspend on its budget by more than £5 million this year.

A budgetary control report for August which was agreed by cabinet on Tuesday October 17 predicts an overspend of £5.364 million.

July’s report predicted the council would overspend by £7.754 million and this figure was reduced by £2.390 million after an action plan was put in place to identify savings.

While the figures for the departments for resources, places and strategies are predicted to balance, the department for people is forecast to spend £101.320 million before next April, which is £4.589 million over budget.

Cllr Kam Rai, cabinet member for finance and support services, said: “This has now pushed the pressure up by half a million pounds.

“The pressure is always going to come from the people department. That is the one that is the toughest to predict.

“We know how many bins we are going to have to collect and how many streets we have to clean in a year – you can predict those figures a lot better.

“But if you have someone moving into the borough that has a need and requires care, that responsibility becomes ours.

“This department deals with residents who have learning disabilities or who have been involved in an accident and need care and for residents who recently moved into the area and now require these services.”

Learning Disability Residential Placement Care Packages are predicted to cost the council £0.540 million more than it was allocated in the budget.

The council has a general contingency budget of £3 million to cover unexpected costs.

Cllr Rai added: “The important thing is we do it on a month to month basis and rather than waiting for the end of the financial year when there’s no time to do anything about an overspend.”

The figures are based on the council’s actual performance compared with the budget for 2017/18 which was agreed by the council in February.