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The increasing costs of care, particularly for vulnerable children, means that earlier this month we forecasted that expenditure would exceed the available budget by £2.3m.
We have a strong track record of delivering budget savings but are now in the position where we cannot keep pace with demand and we, along with councils across the country, are in a precarious financial situation.
We are legally required to balance our budget at the end of the year and are committed to doing that but are now introducing more immediate measures to achieve this.
We’re looking at deferring spending until next year, have paused recruitment of staff for the time being, and are reviewing savings we’ve identified for next year to see which could be introduced more quickly.
Recent news of the local government finance settlement for the year ahead has not helped the situation either.
The figure announced does not provide enough funding to meet the increasing cost pressures we are facing.
In response to this, earlier this month we wrote to our two local MPs - John Penrose, MP for Weston-super-Mare and Sir Liam Fox, MP for North Somerset – asking them to discuss with ministers the consequences of this.
We receive about £37m a year less in government grant than the average English council and due to our low levels of council tax, our ability to generate additional income through local funding is also much more limited than it is for other councils.
If action is not taken by government, our services will suffer.
Detailed budget proposals will be considered at a meeting of our Executive on Wednesday 7 February.
The final budget and council tax levels for the year ahead is expected to be agreed at a meeting of the Full Council on Tuesday 20 February.
The meetings will be streamed and then saved on our YouTube channel.