Cash-strapped Liverpool Council has been warned of further budget pressures if it cannot deliver savings on time as increased deficits loom.
Auditors Grant Thorton delivered its interim value for money report on the local authority for 2020/21 in which it said Liverpool Council cannot afford to allow savings to continue to mount up year-on-year. The report, which will go before the council’s audit committee next week, has provided an interim set of findings as the auditors await the outcome of an external investigation of the council they themselves requested.
Law firm TLT LLP has been tasked with leading a scope into the local authority’s records to establish whether there is any evidence of “improper influence in the council’s decision making arising from the actions of the former Mayor and former senior officers.” Grant Thornton said they cannot sign off on Liverpool Council’s books for 2019/20 until the work is completed.
