Haringey is forecast to spend £21.7m more than it budgeted, on top of £84.3m of emergency government support. Cabinet sees the Quarter 1 figures on 15 September.

Haringey is on course to spend £21.7m more than it budgeted this year, three months into the financial year, and that is on top of £84.3m of emergency borrowing permission from government.

The figure is in the council’s 2026/27 Finance Update Quarter 1, published this month and going to Cabinet on Tuesday 15 September. It is signed off by Taryn Eves, the Corporate Director of Finance and Resources and the council’s section 151 officer.

The headline numbers are these:

  • The budget set in March was £353.0m. That budget already assumed £84.3m of Exceptional Financial Support from government.
  • The council now forecasts spending £374.8m, a £21.7m overspend.
  • Of that, £16.7m is pressure on the base budget and £5.0m is savings that were agreed but are not being delivered.
  • The schools grant is a separate £8.4m overspend, and the council’s housing account a further £3.478m.
  • Together that is £33.6m across the whole council.

Where the money is going

The report attributes 80% of service spend to adult social care, children’s services and temporary accommodation. The forecast overspend splits like this, by management area:

Haringey's forecast 2026/27 overspend by management area Bar chart of Haringey Council's forecast General Fund overspend at Quarter 1 2026/27, totalling £21.7m. Corporate non-service budgets £10.30m. Finance and Resources £3.16m. Children's Services £3.12m. Housing Demand, temporary accommodation, £2.89m. Environment and Resident Experience £1.38m. Adult social care £0.71m. Culture, Strategy and Communities £0.12m. Forecast 2026/27 overspend by area, £m Haringey Council, Quarter 1 (period 3). Total £21.7m. Corporate (non-service) 10.30 Finance and Resources 3.16 Children's Services 3.12 Housing Demand (TA) 2.89 Environment and Resident Exp. 1.38 Adult social care 0.71 Culture, Strategy, Communities 0.12 The corporate figure is almost entirely savings agreed in this year and last year that have not been found. It is not a service overspend. Source: Haringey Council, 2026/27 Finance Update Quarter 1, Table 2 (Cabinet, 15 September 2026). Graphic by Crouch End News
The single largest line is not a service at all. It is £10.3m of savings the council agreed to make and has not made.

That corporate line is the one the report keeps returning to. Of £8.7m in cross-council savings for this year, only 54% is forecast to be delivered. Savings held inside individual directorates are doing better, at 93% of £13.2m.

The council’s external auditors issued a statutory recommendation about exactly this. It said that persistent failure to deliver savings targets exposes the authority to a risk of significant financial loss. Full Council accepted the recommendation and the council’s response on 20 July. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has also commissioned CIPFA to carry out a Financial Resilience Review of the council, which the report says is due to start shortly.

What the emergency support actually costs

Exceptional Financial Support is not a grant. It is permission to borrow to cover day to day spending, and the report is blunt about the bill:

At current rates each £1m of EFS used will add £86,000 to revenue costs each year for the next 20 years assuming the principal is repaid at maturity.

On £84.3m, that is roughly £7.2m a year of extra revenue cost, for two decades, before the principal is repaid.

The report also warns that if the overspend is not brought down, the £84.3m will not be enough. There is £23.5m of uncommitted corporate contingency left, of which £800,000 was allocated during the first quarter. Using the contingency would cover the gap this year, but the report says it would not fix the underlying problem.

Schools, and two libraries close to home

The Dedicated Schools Grant is £8.4m overspent, all of it in the High Needs Block for children with special educational needs. The council has submitted a SEND improvement plan to government. If it is approved, a one-off payment of £9.4m would cut the accumulated deficit from £12.7m to £3.3m.

Individual school budgets are deteriorating faster. Schools ended 2025/26 with a combined deficit of £4.1m. At the end of the first quarter that had risen to £7.7m. The report says the council is working with school leaders on recovery plans and other solutions “which may lead to further academisation and / or closures”.

Closer to home, the capital programme shows two local buildings inside a scheme that is forecast to overspend by £2.2m, because works were carried over from last year without a budget adjustment being agreed:

  • £1.13m for Hornsey Library in Crouch End.
  • £450,000 for a roof replacement at Muswell Hill Library.
  • A separate line records £41,000 spent so far, and £52,000 forecast, on refurbishment works at Muswell Hill and Wood Green libraries.
  • Alexandra Palace maintenance is listed at £470,000 and forecast on budget.

The library service itself is £213,000 overspent, which the report puts down almost entirely to unmet income targets. The council is considering more marketing of its rooms for hire and a modern booking system to close the gap.

£2.1m written off, and 4,725 parking debts

The report also records the debts the council gave up on between April and June. It wrote off £2.1m, and 46% of that was parking.

  • Parking: £956,925 across 4,725 cases.
  • Commercial rent: £493,090.67 across 29 cases.
  • Council tax: £149,766.63 across 13 cases.
  • Business rates: £120,761.25 across 10 cases.
  • Housing benefit overpayments: £115,205.24 across 79 cases.
  • Council housing rent: £112,054.96 across 182 cases.
  • One adult social care debt of £101,465, the only single case above £50,000.

Write-offs are what happens when recovery action has been exhausted. The report says all of them were already covered by the council’s bad debt provision, so they do not create a new in-year pressure.

The one part that is improving

Temporary accommodation is forecast £2.9m over, but the direction of travel has changed. Net spend on temporary accommodation has fallen from £2.29m a month to £1.7m, a drop of 26% over 13 months, and held steady through the first quarter. The report credits the hotel exit programme for most of that.

Parking and highways, community safety and waste between them brought in £2.262m more income than budgeted, which offsets part of the environment directorate’s pressure.

What it means for you

Nothing changes on your bill this month. The council tax you are paying was set in February and runs to March 2027, and you can check which band you are in and what it costs on our service page.

What this report tells you is what next February’s budget will be built on. Three things are worth watching:

  • The 15 September Cabinet meeting. It is at 6.30pm at George Meehan House, 294 High Road, Wood Green, N22 8JZ. Cabinet is asked only to note these figures, not to decide anything on them. Meetings are filmed and broadcast on the council’s website.
  • The CIPFA review. An external review of financial management and governance usually reports before the budget it will influence.
  • The Quarter 2 report, which will be the first to carry progress against the council’s new three-year Financial Resilience Plan.

If your interest is closer to the ground, the parking write-off figure is a reminder of how much of the council’s income depends on enforcement. Our parking guide sets out the zones and hours that generate it.

Sources: Haringey Council, 2026/27 Finance Update Quarter 1 (report to Cabinet, 15 September 2026), and the Cabinet agenda for 15 September 2026.