The City of London Corporation has reported an overall budget overspend of £692,000 for the 2025/26 financial year. The total net expenditure for the year was £20.930m against an agreed budget of £20.238m.
The overspend was primarily attributed to £753,000 in unidentified savings
that were included in the original budget, meaning compensatory savings had not been found. Jenny Pitcairn from the Chamberlain's Department explained that this meant we started the year with a forecast overspend of that amount, unless compensatory savings could be found.
The meeting minutes do not explicitly state why these specific savings were not realized, only that they were included in the original budget and compensatory savings were not found.
Beyond the unidentified savings
, the Environment, £0.421m overspend
also contributed to the deficit. This was comprised of several elements, including a reduction in income from Animal Health Services (£0.700m) and a planned reduction in transfers from reserves for Street Cleansing (£0.320m). These were partially offset by increases in income from Street Cleansing (£0.300m) and City Environmental Health (£0.113m), as well as reductions in contract costs from Waste Disposal (£0.107m) and Street Cleansing (£0.116m). Reductions in staff costs due to vacant posts (£0.338m) and new grant income for waste management and recycling (£0.372m) also factored in.
Additionally, the City Surveyor, £158,000 overspend
was due to increases in reactive repair works, mainly at the Cemetery & Crematorium and Public Conveniences (£158,000), and an increase in CWP costs due to changes in phasing of projects (£147,000).
Despite the overall overspend, the Environment Department as a whole reported an underspend of almost £1.7 million, which offset the deficit within the Port Health and Environmental Services Committee's remit. Councillor Marianne Bernadette Fredericks raised concerns about street cleaning underspends, which were attributed to a combination of performance deductions and third-party cleaning. Ian Hughes clarified that performance monitoring is conducted through joint inspections, with deductions made when contracted standards are not met, indicating appropriate contract monitoring rather than a service failure.
Further details on the budget and outturn figures for the committee's services can be found in the Public reports pack for the Port Health and Environmental Services Committee meeting on 21st July 2026 Public reports pack 21st-Jul-2026 11.00 Port Health Environmental Services Committee.
