Social Value Ideas for Leicestershire County Council

£7m underspend allocated

The council reported a £7m revenue underspend for 2025/26 and proposed to use it for debt repayment, highways support, and transformation programme costs. This is a clear budget decision with potentia…

“So the report then sets out a proposed use of that and to spend that £7,000,000 which is focused on a number of strategic and service related prioriti…”

Efficiency review investment

The efficiency review and revised transformation programme require a one-off net investment of £20m before becoming self-financing. Officers described the programme as containing 13 benefit proposals,…

“View review has been undertaken by Newton Consulting alongside council officers and lead members and has resulted in 13 benefits proposals in addition…”

Efficiency review implementation cost

The council is proposing a large efficiency programme with significant upfront implementation costs before savings are realised. Officers explained that the programme includes both existing MTFS savin…

“Speaker 2: Thank you, madam chairman. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for the invitation to mister Fowler and myself to attend today's meeting.…”

Use of £7m underspend

Cabinet considered and approved proposals to allocate the council’s £7m revenue underspend. The money is split between debt reduction, highway schemes, and funding implementation of the efficiency rev…

“The report recommends a 7,000,000 underspend is allocated to 2 and a half million for the capital financing and debt repayments, helping to reduce fur…”

Early debt repayment savings

The council has repaid £42m of debt early across seven loans since April, paying £8.2m in premiums to achieve an estimated net saving of around £1m per year. This is a major treasury decision affectin…

“So they relate to the send deficit uh UASC placements recruitment and retention in environment and transport and ash dieback. In conclusion, chair uh …”

Treasury gains and debt reduction

The annual treasury management report recorded £12 million investment income, rising to £16.6 million including other investments, alongside repayment of £44.5 million external debt. The council ended…

“Speaker 9: Overall, the investment return from the low risk investments that we make was 4.7% and exceeded the benchmark rate slightly for the year wi…”

Gilt index investment executed

The fund made a substantial £140 million allocation to UK government bonds via Legal & General’s all stocks gilt index fund. Officers said this was the main new investment activity in the quarter and …

“The most significant activity was that 140 million pounds to the um legal and general all stocks guilt index fund. So that is the UK government bond i…”

SEND deficit and grant

The council faces a severe and persistent SEND financial pressure, with a £99m cumulative deficit at year end and a £35m overspend in-year on the high needs block. Members discussed a government high …

“But there are some signs that some of those trends are maybe improving slightly, which is why the overspend has reduced over the last couple of months…”

SEND deficit and grant risk

The council’s biggest financial pressure remains SEND/high needs spend, forecast to overspend by £62m in 2026-27, with uncertainty over future government support beyond March 2026. Officers said the 9…

“Speaker 11: You'll see from the report that, as we talked about in previous meetings, the most significant financial risk for the council continues to…”