Adam Kent: We need to talk about Worcestershire County Council’s overspending

Cllr Adam Kent is the Leader of the Conservative Group on Worcestershire County Council.

One of the most corrosive frustrations in modern politics is not ignorance of the problem, nor even disagreement about the solution. It is knowing—with absolute clarity—what must be done, while watching a bloated system quietly conspire to ensure that it never happens.

Across Whitehall, local government, and the wider public sector, a familiar pattern has taken hold. Directors are paid high six-figure salaries to “lead transformation”, yet appear incapable—or unwilling—of delivering it without commissioning armies of external consultants, running up yet more cost, and producing glossy reports that change nothing on the ground. Accountability is diffused, responsibility evaporates, and failure is rewarded with another restructure.

Worcestershire County Council is not unique. It is experiencing exactly the same pressures as every other upper-tier authority in the country: runaway costs in adult social care, children’s services, and home-to-school transport, all consumed by a minority of service users, while the majority of residents see visible services quietly eroded.

£120 million overspent and no one wants to talk about it

Under the current Reform administration, Worcestershire County Council overspent by nearly £120 million in-year. Not forecast. Not hypothetical. Actual spend beyond budget.

In any serious organisation, this would trigger immediate intervention, root-and-branch reform, and leadership accountability. Instead, it is being quietly swept aside—kicked down the road through a combination of statutory override and borrowing from central government.

Statutory override does not make the problem disappear. It merely parks the bill somewhere out of sight. Government borrowing is not “extra money”; it is deferred taxation. The costs do not vanish—they are transferred to future residents, future councils, and future services.

The false choice we keep avoiding

On Special Educational Needs and Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), there are only two honest pathways:

• Restrict demand by tightening thresholds, improving early intervention, and restoring parental responsibility.
• Fully fund supply by building local provision at scale and accepting the true cost.

What we have instead is the worst of all worlds: ever-expanding demand, no meaningful supply-side reform, and costs spiralling beyond control—masked temporarily by borrowing and overrides that merely delay the reckoning.

Leadership means owning the numbers

The real crisis in politics is not lack of ideas. It is lack of courage—especially when the figures are ugly.

Leadership means owning overspends instead of hiding them, making difficult decisions rather than deferring them, explaining uncomfortable truths to residents, and refusing to rely on statutory workarounds as a substitute for reform.

We know the answers. The question is whether anyone in charge is finally prepared to deliver them.