Bucks Council executive defends increased spend on legal fees despite cuts elsewhere

The council’s draft budget reads: “These costs have risen sharply in the last three years, while the requirement for advice and representation has remained high or risen further, putting pressure on budgets.”

Deputy chief executive Sarah Ashmead – whose salary is £190,000 to £194,999 – said the council had a ‘strong’ in-house legal team.

She told a budget scrutiny meeting on Monday (6 January) that the council ‘tried to avoid’ buying in outside legal help, but sometimes had to pay for the ‘expertise’ of external solicitors and barristers in certain cases.

The executive also said the council’s legal capacity was ‘not restricted’ and was therefore ‘not absorbing money’ from other areas.

Her response followed questioning by Councillor Anja Schaefer who asked about the causes of rising costs and their impact.

John Chilver, the cabinet member for accessible housing and resources, said: “I think it is linked to the increase in workload and also the increase in complexity of the legal cases that we are having to deal with.”

Since its creation in 2020, the council has spent at least £10 million on brought-in legal advice, according to its public filings over £500.

Councillor Schaefer suggested some of the council’s legal costs related to devolution, ‘delays’ to creating the local plan – the document guiding future development – and ‘difficulties extracting contributions’ from HS2 over the new high speed railway being built through Buckinghamshire.