Issue - meetings

The Cabinet considered the report of the Head of Corporate Resources that indicated that to comply with statute, the Chief Financial Officer was required to report to Council prior to the approval of the budget and the setting of the Council Tax and to give assurance that the budget was robust and that there were adequate reserves and balances. 

The report detailed that when preparing the budget for 2018/19 and the second year of the current Budget Plan, the Council’s Strategic Leadership Board had led and been fully engaged in the process and had been challenged to ensure that services could be delivered within available funding and that estimates of expenditure and income were realistic; that as a result the Strategic Leadership Board had confirmed that the proposals made within this budget package both from the Public Sector Reform projects and service options were deliverable; that the proposed budget, due to the scale of the funding gap faced by the Council, had been prepared with careful consideration and full acknowledgement of the risk and uncertainty around both the proposals made and existing pressures faced by the Council; and that as this risk could not be fully mitigated e.g. as a result of the demand pressure facing both Adults and Children’s Social Care budgets, it was important that these proposals were considered alongside the level of reserves held.

The following factors had been considered and were detailed in the report:-

·       Four year settlement and increased reliance on local funding estimates

·       Maintaining Service Delivery

·       Anticipated New Demand Pressures

·       Resources to Deliver Change

·       Inflation and Annual Cost Increases

·       Impact of Previous Years’ Budget

·       Financial Management

·       Management of Risk

·       Capital Strategy and Strategic Investment

·       External Advice

Regarding the Reserves Strategy 2018/19 the report also provided information on:-

·       General Fund

·       National considerations associated with the impact of the economic climate on Council costs and the anticipated reductions in Government funding

·       Local considerations associated with planned changes in service delivery methods / contracts, the impact of rising demand for services and legal challenges   

·        Earmarked Reserves

The report concluded that as a result of considering the issues contained within the report, it was the view that the budget proposed was a robust budget package and the opinion provided was in accordance with Section 25 of the Local Government Act 2003. 

Decisions Made:

That the Council be requested to have regard to the matters raised in the report during the final stages of determination of the Budget for 2018/19.