East Herts is three months into the year and £440,000 over budget. BEAM in Hertford is forecast to lose £302,000, and planning agency staff add £297,000.

East Herts Council is forecasting a £440,000 overspend for this financial year, three months in. Two services account for almost all of it, and neither is a surprise to the council.

The figures are in the quarter one monitoring report going to the Executive on Tuesday 8 September. The net revenue budget set in March was £21.567m. The forecast is now £22.007m.

Where the £440,000 comes from

The council’s own breakdown of variances puts the biggest pressures here:

  • BEAM, £318,000. The Hertford venue was budgeted to bring in a net £16,000. It is now forecast to run a £302,000 operating deficit. That is after £184,000 of contingency money set aside for its early years has already been used.
  • Planning, £297,000. Agency staff in development management, because the council cannot recruit experienced planners.
  • Environmental Health, £80,000. Agency costs again, on a statutory service, with a further £25,000 fixed-term pressure excluded from the forecast because the funding is uncertain.
  • Parking, £72,000. Business rates, plus an income shortfall on electric vehicle charging that is starting later than planned.
  • Strategic Property, £40,000. Business rates on Charringtons House and Rapier House, partly offset by letting office space at Wallfields.
  • Waste, £20,000. The NHS stopped funding the clinical waste collection service. Garden waste income covers part of it.
Diverging bar chart of East Herts Council's largest forecast budget variances at quarter one, from a £318,000 pressure at BEAM to a £157,000 underspend in the transformation team
The largest forecast variances at the end of June 2026, from the council's own appendix

Set against those, the transformation team is £157,000 under budget and democratic services £121,000 under, both because posts are vacant or were cut in a review that was never reflected in this year’s base budget.

One line does not reconcile. The table records Planning at £297,000, while the narrative beside it describes a £490,000 agency pressure “partially offset by underspends of £350K relating to the Gilston Area development programme”. Those two figures come to £140,000, not £297,000.

The council warns the planning number could get worse. The forecast assumes vacant posts are filled during the year, and says that if recruitment proves harder than expected “there is a risk that the overspend will increase further”.

The £250,000 the Executive is being asked to spend

The rest of the report is a request as well as a statement. Members set up a £250,000 Executive Priority Reserve in the March budget and are now asked to commit the last of it:

Scheme Amount
Ward Freeman Swimming Pool, Buntingford (approved 2 June) £105,000
Air quality action plan, including a dedicated project manager £65,000
East Herts Citizens Advice Service, additional contribution £40,000
Customer services improvement £30,000
Rye Mead Nature Reserve business case £10,000

Approving these commits the reserve in full for 2026/27. There is nothing left in it for anything that comes up between now and April.

On savings, the council reports none rated red. Two of 19 measures are partly achieved, worth £46,000: a £40,000 increase in electric vehicle charging income delayed by infrastructure work, and £6,000 from car park lockers not yet installed across the car parks.

Capital, and the £170,000 for Water Lane Hall

Capital spending is forecast at £2.159m against a revised budget of £2.402m, an underspend of £243,000. Most of that is timing rather than cancellation. The report expects £237,000 to be carried into 2027/28, made up of £170,000 for the URC Church Hall scheme and £67,000 for Old River Lane town centre regeneration.

That first line is the money earmarked for Water Lane Hall, which goes to the same meeting as a separate item. On this forecast it is not being spent this year or next.

New money has come in during the year: £478,000 of government funding for the Warmer Homes Local Grant scheme, £88,000 of section 106 money for hostel improvements and £24,000 of UK Shared Prosperity Fund schemes. A further £185,000 has been found from existing provision for depot improvements at Amwell and Buntingford, dilapidations at the Castle Stable Block in Hertford, and bridge maintenance across the district.

Debt owed to the council stood at £1.764m at the end of June, down £904,000 or 34% since March. More than half of what remains, £926,000, is over 180 days old.

What it means for you

None of this changes a bill this month. It does tell you where the pressure is, and two of the items land directly on Bishop’s Stortford residents.

  • If you are waiting on a planning decision, the council is saying in its own papers that it cannot recruit experienced development management planners and is paying agency rates instead. Our planning news page tracks what is being validated and decided.
  • If you park in council car parks, the electric vehicle charging rollout that was meant to generate income this year is running late.
  • If you need advice on money or benefits, the extra £40,000 for East Herts Citizens Advice is part of this decision, so it depends on Tuesday’s vote.
  • To follow it, the Executive meets at 7pm on Tuesday 8 September at Wallfields in Hertford, and the meeting is webcast.

A refreshed medium-term financial plan, which is where any unachievable savings get dealt with, is due back at the Executive in October.