Shropshire Council looks to declare financial emergency

Shropshire Council is expected to declare a “financial emergency” next week at a cabinet meeting as it struggles to balance the books.

The Liberal Democrat authority’s chief executive will be asked to chair a recovery board to try and find urgent savings, if the council is to avoid effectively declaring itself bankrupt.

Its latest finance report is predicting an overspend this financial year of £35.169m by the end of the 2025-26 financial year, £889,000 of which cannot be funded through reserves or other means.

The report blamed a rise in the demand for social care, which it…