'Finally we have a Government that cares for places like St Helens'

Labour won a huge majority in last Thursday’s general election and, following that, formed a Government.

Council leader Cllr Anthony Burns, Labour, shared his views at the start of the council’s cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

He said: “Good afternoon everybody, welcome to this afternoon’s meeting of St Helens Borough Council cabinet – as we celebrate the first cabinet meeting under a new Government.

“After 14 long years of cuts and brutal austerity, we now finally have a Government that cares for places like ours, with pledges of renewal after 14 years of Tory decay.

“Change is certainly much needed and very much welcome, so good afternoon everybody.”

A financial monitoring report for period one of 2024-25 came before the cabinet at its meeting.

Anthony Burns (Image: St Helens Labour)

It provided the cabinet with the forecast financial position in relation to the revenue and capital budget for 2024-25.

It also summarised the council’s reserves and balances position and includes the treasury management position statement.

The report also provided detail on the delivery of the 2023-24 programme of budget savings, including savings brought forward from prior years.

The report to cabinet said the failure to deliver agreed savings presents a “key risk” to the council.

It stated that, at this “early stage” in the year, there is a “forecast portfolio overspend of £2.624m against the updated net portfolio budget of £185.245m” – but it adds that “one-off corporate underspends will offset this pressure by £0.383m, resulting in a forecast net budget overspend of £2.241m for 2024/25”.

The cabinet approved a number of recommendations.

These included approving a “change request” to the existing grant funding agreement with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority for the Parkside Link Road to accept £9 million additional funding from the Freeport Seed Investment Fund.