Issue - meetings

Approval of the final budget , MTFS and Council Tax for 2024/25 by Full Council in accordance with the Council’s Constitution.

Report of the Director for Finance. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance and Local Investment.

Following public consultation and Scrutiny Review, this report will set out the details of the proposed budget for 2024/25 and MTFS through to 2028/29, including savings, growth and capital proposals. The report will also set out details of funding for 2024/25 and, if available, the remainder of the planning period and highlight areas of risk. The report also includes details of the proposed HRA budget for 2024/25 and MTFS to 2028/29 including proposed 5-year capital investment and funding. The report will be for onward approval by Full Council on the 04 of March when it will include the details of the council tax resolution.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Local Investment introduced the report which set out details of the final proposed General Fund (GF) Budget for 2024/25; the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) 2024/29; the HRA Budget 2024/25 and its Financial Plan, as well as the capital programmes for both funds. It also included proposed dedicated school’s budgets for 2024/25.

The Cabinet Member continued to outline the context for compiling the 2024/25 Budget and Medium-Term Financial Strategy which included: significantly reduced government funding over the last 14 years, increased demand for social care services, and rising inflation which was further increasing spend on statutory services.

The Cabinet Member expressed that setting a balanced budget meant being prudent about the affordability of borrowing and some Council projects would have to be delayed to a time when the cost of borrowing was lower. 

The budget further considered:

-       value for money through reducing use of agency staff,

-       the ambitions for the Council house building programme of 3000 new Council homes by 2031,

-       helping support families out of temporary accommodation and homelessness pursuing climate and air quality goals.

The Council would continue to resource libraries, children’s centres, parks, leisure facilities, affordable homes, and youth services.

The Leader invited the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny to introduce the scrutiny recommendations and apologies for absence were noted from Cllr Connor, Vice Chair of Overview and Scrutiny, and chair of the scrutiny review of the budget process.

The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny advised that scrutiny colleagues recognised the scale of the challenge in putting forward a balanced budget for consideration and they acknowledged that the budget proposals continued to protect vital frontline services. The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny welcomed the Cabinet responses to the scrutiny recommendations and noted that a vast majority had been agreed.

There were a few issues to address in the way the budget was presented to both the Cabinet and Overview and Scrutiny Committee and improvements to the process had been outlined to be taken forward in next year’s process.

The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny referred to scrutiny recommendation 17, outlining a couple of errors identified by scrutiny members in the savings calculations and presentational issues regarding the growth figures, which, although had not that led to any errors in the budget itself, had made the whole process of scrutinising the proposed areas of growth quite challenging.

Similarly, when amended savings proposals were considered post December 2023, when it came to the library service, it was not clear how this was being set out in financial terms. The Cabinet response provided confidence that a balanced budget was proposed, and Overview and Scrutiny would continue to scrutinise the budget compilation process, taking into consideration these experiences.

In response to questions from Cllr Hakata and Cllr Emery, the following information was provided:

-       The Council was not alone in setting a budget with difficulties, and it was reported that there were one in five local authorities in financial difficulties.However, the proposed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 84