The council is grappling with a possible £33 million hole in its books.

Officers are currently in the process of drafting the 2022/23 budget, but the amount of money needed to fund social services is proving challenging.

Councillors have been told to expect a budget gap which could reach £33.01 million.

This is measured by taking away how much estimated funding there is available to how much is required.

The budget approved by councillors back in February included a gap of £3.155 million, which was plugged by reserves.

A financial outlook report was presented by the authority's chief finance officer Phil Watts to members of the council's business support overview and scrutiny committee yesterday.

He said while at this time of the year he would usually produce a medium-term financial strategy for councillors to read, his department were waiting for further funding details from central government.

The Chancellor's autumn budget is to be presented next Wednesday.

Mr Watts said: "The scale of the pressures confronting the council as a result of the ongoing impact of the pandemic and the uncertainty over resources available to local government generally, we haven't had much coming out of government as yet.

"I fully expect the work my team and the rest of the organisation is engaged in – between now and me presenting the draft budget in the middle of November – that we will have made significant inroads into that gap and we'll also build in whatever impact we think is coming out of the Chancellor's statement."

The council's biggest areas of concern are children's and adults' services which makes up 70% of the budget; the high level of demand for placements for children in care, as well as supported living arrangements for those with mental health needs, learning difficulties, and older adults are the main areas of spend.

The report reads: "Our current projections indicate that in order to continue to meet our statutory responsibilities, our budget for children’s services would need to grow by £15 million while our adult social care services budget would need to grow by almost £11 million."

Yesterday we revealed how the council is spending almost £2m on buying Mountbatten House in Chatham.

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