Stratford Council Forecasts Underspend Despite Toilet Cleaning Costs

Stratford-on-Avon District Council expects to end the financial year £608,000 better off than its budget, mainly thanks to higher interest on its savings, even though cleaning the district’s public toilets is set to cost £200,000 more than planned. The figures are in a budget monitoring report to the council’s Cabinet on Monday 2 November.

At the half-year point, 30 September, spending was £469,346 over the profiled budget, but officers forecast that will turn into an underspend by 31 March 2027.

Where the Stratford council budget is up and down

The biggest changes forecast for the full year:

• Investment interest: £650,000 more than budgeted, because interest rates are higher than expected.
• Bin collections: £460,000 better, mostly because the first payment from the national Extended Producer Responsibility scheme (packaging producers paying towards recycling) was higher than budgeted.
• Car parks: £60,000 more parking income than planned.
• Public toilets: £200,000 over, because of higher cleaning costs under the new cleaning contract.
• Council property: £100,000 over, mainly for landslide repair works at Timothy’s Bridge Road and lost rent from empty properties.
• Stratford Nature Reserve: £48,000 of maintenance work.
• Leisure centres: £25,000 over, for repairs and a loss of income claim after the temporary closure of Stratford Leisure Centre.
• Housing benefit: £50,000 over, because less overpaid benefit is being recovered and government subsidy is short.

Half-year figures also show big one-off spending that is being paid for from money set aside earlier, including building safety work at Elizabeth House, the council’s offices on Church Street, and costs for the South Warwickshire Local Plan and the Stratford relief road.

Unpaid council tax written off

The report also lists debts written off: £89,865.89 of council tax across 109 accounts and £47,454.21 of business rates across 16 accounts, plus one housing benefit overpayment of £4,775.64. Only write-offs over £1,000 have to be reported to the Cabinet.

The council’s reserves

The council started the year with £20.6 million in its general reserve. After the use agreed in February’s budget, spending carried over from last year and the forecast underspend, it expects £14.3 million to be left on 31 March 2027, plus £28 million of its own money in earmarked reserves.

The Cabinet meets at 10am on Monday 2 November at Elizabeth House, and the meeting is streamed on the council’s YouTube channel. The same meeting looks at the district’s housing land supply. More council stories are on our council news page.

Alex Harrington

Alex Harrington grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon and runs What's up, Stratford? as an independent guide to the town.