Decision details

10.1

The Director of Finance and Commercial Services submitted a report setting out the medium-term financial position for the Council and proposals on how individual policy committee budget targets for 2024/25 are set.  The report also sets out the 2023/24 Q1 budget monitoring position for the general fund and the Strategy and Resources committee budget position.

10.2

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Strategy and Resources Policy Committee:-

(a) endorses, as a planning assumption, core Council Tax increases of 2.99% for 2024/25 and 2% each year after and the Adult Social Care Precept increases of 2% for 2024/25 and 1% each year after;

(b) notes, that while the Council has taken action to remove reliance on reserves to

balance the budget, the current level of reserves provides a limited amount of time for action to be taken strategically in response to the financial position;

(c) notes, firm action is being taken over the period of the Medium Term Financial Analysis (MTFA) to contain pressures and deliver significant savings and/or mitigations through continued delivery of BIPS and organisational development and transformation. Failure to do so will see the Council’s financial position become unsustainable;

(d) requests, an updated MTFA will be presented in November 2023 to Strategy and Resources Policy Committee following identification of savings by Committees and refinement of pressures in the coming months;

(e) approves the 2024/25 budget targets as set out in this report reflecting the MTFA;

(f) requests that reports are presented to Policy Committees for approval at meetings in November that set out how they will balance their budgets for 2024/25;

(g) notes that a consolidated report based on the individual Policy Committee reports and decisions of the Policy Committees will be brought to the 13 December

meeting of this Committee;

(h) notes the updated information and management actions provided by this report

on the 2023/24 Q1 Revenue Budget.

10.3

Reasons for Decision

The recommendations in this report will formally record the changes to the revenue budget and ensure that the Council has a robust budget process for 2024/25 and that each Policy Committee undertakes any work required to balance their 2024/25 budget.

10.4

Alternatives Considered and Rejected

The Council is required to both set a balanced budget and to ensure that in-year income and expenditure are balanced. No other alternatives were considered.