Issue - meetings

Ahead of the Council meeting to be held on 7 February 2023 this report updates Cabinet on the emerging budget and the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

Portfolio Holder – Councillor Peter Butlin

Councillor Peter Butlin (Deputy Leader of the Council) introduced the published report which provided an update on the current financial position since the publication of the last report in December:

• The report was set against a backdrop of uncertain economic times.
• The Local Government finance settlement confirmed the positive allocation for Local Government, but again was only confirmed as a one-year settlement for 2024/25.  The change from the estimates in the December report gave a short term loss of grant in 2023/24 of £0.472m, which rose to an overall on-going gain of £0.674m by the end of the MTFS in 2027/28.
• In terms of Council Tax and business rates, there were still some outstanding figures relating to the Council Tax base increase.
• Reserves were key to managing the short-term budget position and the reserves strategy was unchanged from the current financial year. The review of reserves identified £44.1m as available for use in this budget cycle, in addition to the £23.1m of investment funds that were as yet unallocated. The review of general risk reserves had identified the need to maintain the £26m from 2021/22, although there were changes to specific allocations highlighted in the report.  The Section 151 Officer would not support the budget as balanced and sustainable if the £26m general risk reserves were not sustained.
• Since the report to Cabinet in December, there had been two further material changes which were summarised in the report: additional Adult Social Care pressures of £2.28m and a saving from reducing the DSG overspend offset provision by £2m due to additional High Needs Block funding from Central Government.
• The Capital Strategy had not changed since the previous report.
• The changes outlined in the report were provided to Cabinet for information to consider when finalising a balanced budget for 2022/23 and a sustainable MTFS for 2022-27 as part of the Cabinet’s budget resolutions to Full Council on 7 February 2023.

In response to questions from Councillor Roodhouse, Councillor Butlin advised that the County Council was required to set its budget before those of the lower tier councils which required a level of prediction in terms of what the lower tiers would do.  He understood that whilst the other districts and boroughs had considered the issue of Council Tax Support Schemes, they had not deemed them affordable.  Councillor Butlin advised that £44.1m reserves had been identified as available for use in this budget cycle, in addition to the £23.1m of investment funds that were as yet unallocated.  The Section 151 Officer required the general risk reserve of £26m to be maintained for the budget to be considered balanced and sustainable.

Resolved

That Cabinet:

1.     Notes the latest resource and spending information, the advice and the impact on the emerging budget proposals presented in the report;

2.     Notes the Strategic Director for Resources’ risk assessment on the level of general reserves, as detailed in Appendix B of the report;

3.     Publishes, in light of the information provided, their 2023/24 budget resolutions for recommendation to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2