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 Council on 7
February 2023; and
- Authorises the Strategic Director
for Resources to incorporate the outstanding resource information
into the budget resolutions to be considered by Council on 7
February 2023.