Rutland's budget for the latest financial year came in with a small overspend, with less recycling, fewer staff and more money from interest payments all helping to balance the books. 

The final figures in the 2024/25 Rutland County Council budget have been counted and verified and a report to the cabinet that will be discussed next week shows that the authority was £148,000 over the £52million it had budgeted. 

There were ups and downs across the authority's various departments, with some overspending and others spending less. But holding open some vacancies, processing less household waste, and receiving some banking windfalls made a difference. 

The authority, which is led by Liberal Democrats, had planned to take £3million from reserves to balance the books, but did not need to. It was also able to pay off £2.6million of its overall £21.4million external Public Works Board Loan borrowing, therefore reducing its debt payments in future years. 

The report says: "The outturn position shows an overall favourable position of £0.2million compared to budget, largely the result of three key factors: 

greater investment returns on cash balances  

reduction in the tonnage of waste following behavioural changes from residents which, in turn, reduced disposal fees 

income from additional government grants and planning application fees 

The council has been able to use this additional income rather than drawing down investment from reserves. 

Half a million was saved in the waste management service, and the report said the new waste strategy is 'beginning to have an impact' and that the average amount of residual waste collected each week from every Rutland household has reduced from 8.6kg in 2022 to 6.8kg. 

An extra £845,000 more than anticipated was earned in interest on grants that had come in during the year, such as the Levelling Up Fund. 

The authority did overspend by £267,000 in its £18.1m adult social services budget – the costs were largely due to the rising costs of care packages – and, looking across the departments, at least £500,000 was saved by the authority holding vacancies open and not recruiting new staff. 

The authority is, however, facing a problem in an overspend in the school's budget, spending £2.9million more than was allocated from the Government. The council says this is largely due to a rapidly growing number of children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), which specify additional support for them. Since 2019 the number of children with an EHCP in Rutland has risen from 197 to 394.