A council has forecast a budget underspend of £36,000, but only because there are so many job vacancies left unfilled.

The new council in Rutland, elected in May and led by the Liberal Democrats and Green Party, has given its first budget capital forecast for 2023/24 showing a potential underspend of £36,000.

However, this must be balanced against the large number of job vacancies at Rutland County Council, which, if filled, would add to the wage bill enormously, wiping out any savings.

Before the meeting last night, Tuesday 15 August, had begun, the head of paid service and chief executive officer Mark Andrews said: "Just to highlight to the cabinet in public that we have been experiencing problems resourcing and recruitment in our highways service.

"We held an emergency meeting on Monday evening as the issues have gone beyond those that the service and the directorate can manage on their own. We've agreed some short term intervention to try to stabilise the service, subject to being able to recruit any additional resource."

Rutland County Council's Cabinet is made up primarily of Lib Dem councillors. Image credit: LDRS.

Members of the cabinet then heard from Coun Andrew Johnson (Lib Dem), deputy leader and portfolio holder for resources, who said the vacancy levels "present the council with risks and management are managing the impact of staffing levels on the performances of services, and the delivery of corporate strategy".

Council leader Gale Waller (Lib Dem), said: "The savings we are making because of vacancies actually put a strain on the staff who are trying to cover them, and inevitably – and I suspect highways is an example – will impact on the service delivery if they become too great in any particular area.

"We are aware that a number of professional staff that we employ are in short supply, but that actually doesn't help us, so we need to get our thinking caps on to develop any innovative ways to develop our own staff, as well as attract people to us. It's a difficult situation when we can't get people to do the jobs that we want them to do.

Coun Johnson responded: "I think we are going through a particularly difficult period at the moment with staff vacancies, and I agree with you that there is always an impact on service delivery. On the positive side, I'm hoping that this will stimulate people to think about how they can cope with less cost in future – I've seen this as a 'driver' in the past, and it can be quite effective.

"There is a risk though – certain jobs, and certain tasks aren't carried out, which is why it puts a lot of strain on the directors and their heads of services to make sure that their areas are managed very closely."