A £6 MILLION overspend at Bradford Council has been almost entirely clawed back, its bosses have said.

Three months ago, the authority had been bracing itself for a major overspend in this year’s £378m budget as demand for social services rocketed.

But now a cost-cutting drive across many other departments, combined with the falling cost of borrowing, means the overspend is now expected to be more like £200,000.

Council chiefs say spending on social care is still expected to go over-budget, mainly due to more money being spent on care for the elderly, for people with learning disabilities and for children in care or requiring support.

Bradford Council’s leader, Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, said: “I know Council departments have made a huge effort over the last few months to make up for the projected shortfall.

“Every year the continuing Government cuts make it harder to balance the books.

“A large part of the Council’s budget continues to be spent on care for the elderly, which is right and proper.

“Of course this needs properly financing. At the moment the Government is asking Council taxpayers to pay for this through their Council Tax.”

Leader of the opposition Conservative group, Councillor Simon Cooke, said: “It’s obviously a better situation than we were in in the last quarter, but it is still very concerning that we have got that scale of overspend.

“It’s a bit covered up by lucky things - we have had a little bit of a windfall in terms of our capital costs and the cost of borrowing has gone down.

“That’s clearly not something we are going to get every time.”

Cllr Cooke said it was time Bradford Council looked at the cost of its in-house care homes, which he said were “more expensive” than those in the private sector.

He said while there was “a certain amount of understandable anger” over a lack of money for Council services, there were still savings to be made.

Over the past few years, Bradford Council has had to care for an increasing number of adults and children at a time when its grants are shrinking.

According to the authority, the number of children the Council cares for and the number of children it supports under adoption, residence orders or special guardianship arrangements, has increased by 18 per cent since 2013.

There has also been a 15 per cent rise in long-term residency in its care homes.

The report will be discussed at the authority’s corporate overview and scrutiny committee on Thursday, as well as the Executive on February 7.