Swindon Borough Council underspent its general fund budget by £600,000 last year.

The authority's budget for the financial year 2019-20, which ended on March 31 was £142,497,000. But it spent £141,884,000, as revealed in the authority’s annual statement of accounts put to its audit committee this week.

The saving was achieved by a significant underspend by the resources directorate which offset overspending by the other departments. Adults’ services, which funds care for adults in care homes and in their own homes is the biggest spender. It went through £61,631,000 - £526,000 more than ithad been allocated.

Next was children’s services, excluding the direct grant to school. Services such as social work and educational initiatives cost Swindon council taxpayers £43,198,000 – an overspend of £438,000.

The £27,128,000 spent by the communities housing department on services including its 10,000 council homes represented a £1.548m overspend. The small economy team made a saving of £103,000, spending just £1.137m and the resources directorate saved £3m, spending just £8.7m

That meant the council was in the black at the end of the year, and didn’t have to dip into reserves to balance the budget.