Harlow Council's senior interim managers are forecast to cost £816,000 more than budgeted this year, hired for a council merger that is not now happening.

Harlow Council is forecast to spend £816,000 more than planned on its top management team this year. The main reason is the cost of senior interim staff taken on “in the run up to LGR”, the reorganisation that was due to abolish the council.

The figure is in the council’s latest finance report, which went to Cabinet on Thursday 8 October. It is the single largest overspend in the council’s day-to-day budget.

The report says: “Now that the Government has confirmed that LGR will not be going ahead, consideration is being given to the permanent management structure required to deliver Building Harlow’s Future.”

The overall budget still balances

The overspends do not push the council into the red. The report forecasts a small underspend of £75,000 on the general fund at the end of August.

That is because extra income covers the gap:

  • service budgets are forecast £1.702 million over
  • additional business rates and council tax collection fund income is forecast at £1.944 million

The council says it is “confident that a small surplus position can be achieved” by the year end, as in each of the last three years. Its net service spending budget for 2026/27 is £21.994 million.

Where the money is going over

The report names three large overspends.

Bar chart of Harlow Council's largest forecast overspends for 2026/27 at August 2026: Executive Management Team £816,000, insurance £643,000, Culture and Communities directorate £720,000, of which the Playhouse £320,000.
Chart by Harlow Online. Source: Harlow Council finance report to Cabinet, 8 October 2026.
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Overspend Forecast What the report says
Executive Management Team £816,000 Mainly senior interim staff hired before LGR
Insurance premiums £643,000 Premiums rising faster than inflation, cover for new property and regeneration projects
Culture and Communities £720,000 Includes £320,000 at the Playhouse

On insurance, officers are looking at whether some costs can be paid from the sale of council assets instead. An update is due at the November Cabinet.

The financial dashboard attached to the report shows the scale of temporary staffing across the council. Its contract and agency staff line had a budget of £194,000 and is forecast at £2.736 million. Most of that is offset by salary costs, which are forecast £2.595 million under budget. Taken together, that suggests vacant posts are being covered by agency and interim workers.

The report does not say how many interims are employed, what roles they fill or what they are paid.

Why the interims were hired

In March the government decided that Greater Essex would be reorganised into five new unitary councils, with Harlow abolished from April 2028. On 7 September it withdrew that decision and announced a review of the whole programme. We covered what that meant for Harlow at the time.

The finance report treats reorganisation as off. It does not put a date on a decision about the permanent management team.

Other figures in the report

The same report sets out how the council is doing against its own targets for August. Some of the housing measures stand out:

  • Re-letting empty council homes took an average of 61 days in August, against a target of under 30. It has been rated red in every month for the past year, peaking at 78 days in February.
  • Satisfaction with repairs was 77% in August, against a target of over 97%. August is the only month shown for this year; last year’s figure was 80%.
  • The repairs backlog fell to 1,140 open jobs at the end of August, down from 1,886 in May.
  • Households in temporary accommodation stood at 361, inside the target of under 440.

Those figures are from the KPI appendix.

On capital, the council started the year with £6.083 million of receipts from asset sales and is targeting a further £10 million this year. So far it has brought in £725,000, with another £3.463 million of property under offer or on the market.

Cabinet noted the report. The decision (ref 1272) was not subject to call-in.

What it means for you

  • Council tax is not affected this year. The overspends are being absorbed by extra income, and the council still forecasts a small surplus. You can check your band on our Harlow council tax bands page.
  • Next year’s budget is where it could bite. The report says insurance budgets will rise from 2027/28, and the permanent management structure has not been decided. Both will feed into the budget set in February.
  • If you are waiting for a council home, the re-let figures matter: every empty home that takes 61 days to re-let rather than 30 is a month longer before someone on the list can move in.
  • Updated figures are due in the period 6 report to the November Cabinet.

Sources