Energy crisis forces Harrogate council to spend an extra £1.2 million on bills

Councillors met yesterday to discuss a quarter three financial report that was written by Gillian Morland, service finance manager at the authority.

As well as the increase in energy bills, the report says a new pay award for staff will lead to an additional £1.1m being spent in 2022/23.

To help pay off some of the unexpected costs, the report says the council will use £895,000 from a reserves fund, resulting in a total overspend of £1.4m.

The report said the gas bill would have been higher but the council has utilised the government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme to help with costs.

Harrogate Borough Council operates several large buildings in the district including the Harrogate Convention Centre, Harrogate Hydro pool and the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in Ripon.

It is currently installing solar panels and a heat pump at the Hydro and the new leisure centre that is being built in Knaresborough will be powered by renewable energy.

Chris Aldred, Liberal Democrat councillor for Fairfax, said the council would have to “bite the bullet” on the overspend.

He said: “Let’s be frank about it, [the overspend] is basically down to energy costs.

"If we were to go back two years we wouldn’t be having anything near the energy costs we have now.”

John Mann, Conservative councillor for Pannal, described the £1.4m overspend as “not the end of the world” when put into context of the annual budget of the council, which is £21.5m in 2022/23.

He said: “We have a large amount of reserves some of which we are using to cover the overspend, although it’s mainly because of energy costs and other inflationary rises. We’ve seen prudent financial management in the past to have these things covered.”

The £1.1m overspend on salaries was due to a pay award that saw council workers given a higher than expected pay increase of 6.7 per cent.

However, Councillor Aldred said staff are still facing a real-terms pay decrease due to inflation.

He added: “When you put the two awards together over last two years it’s actually lower than inflation.

"The guys that work for us are being paid a bit less but they are doing more.

"We should thank the officers here today.”