Hundreds of thousands of pounds will be spent on more consultants to help make improvements to Nottingham City Council’s finance department.
The Labour-led council is looking to become financially sustainable by 2028, and progress towards the goal is being overseen by a team of government-appointed officials.
The three commissioners were appointed by the previous Conservative government in February last year, just months after the council declared itself effectively bankrupt in November 2023.
To meet its goals the council has drawn up a two-year Improvement Plan, which is being overseen by the commissioners.
One of the main areas of concern is the council’s management of its finances, which has become a focal point for the authority’s leadership.
Documents show the authority has been working with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) to carry out a review of its finance department.
Following the review, the council says it now needs to hire consultants to carry out improvement work.
The support will come at a cost of £330,000.
“This work will result in a more effective finance organisational structure; a better working culture so that finance is a more enabling function; a more robust and reliable approach to business partnering and monthly monitoring; the introduction of a best practice approach to the development and assessment of business cases, [and] a more robust internal audit function to strengthen governance and scrutiny,” documents say.
“This work is expected to be completed by the end of June.”
The council says it is unable to carry out the work using its own staff due to capacity, another key issue for the council.
At a meeting on April 22, council leader Cllr Neghat Khan (Lab) said: “Financial management continues to be our most significant challenge. While progress is being made, this remains off-track and strengthening this area is an urgent priority.”
The authority says it is still expecting to spend £20.79m more than it has coming in during the current financial year, which began on April 1 2025.
However, this is down from the reported £22.5m budget gap in February, meaning its financial stability has improved.
It also marks an improvement on the £41m gap the council had to fill in the previous financial year of 2024/25.
“The council will be in a stronger financial position once the recommendations of the review have been implemented,” documents add.
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