Issue - meetings

This report provides the quarter three projected financial outturn information for the general fund, housing revenue account (HRA) and capital programme.

The quarter three overall revenue projected outturn is for a balanced position to be achieved based on the latest assumptions, including that the expenditure control mechanisms remain in place for the remainder of the year. A small contingency remains unused for any unexpected costs over the final quarter.    

At the request of the Chair the Portfolio Holder for Finance presented both the Council Budget Monitoring 2024/25 at Quarter Three report and the Budget 2025/26 and Medium Term Financial Plan, copies of which had been circulated to each Member and copies of which appear as Appendices 'A' and ‘B’ to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

Prior to the Portfolio Holder’s presentation, the Chief Finance Officer advised of two updates following the receipt of the final Local Government Finance Settlement which was received the afternoon of the meeting. The meeting was advised that there had been an £80k increase to the Children’s Social Care Prevention grant from £966,000 to £1,046,000. This grant was ringfenced for this specific purpose.  The Council had estimated that the Employers National Insurance Contribution Grant would be £3.3m, leaving a shortfall on the £5.2m cost of the increase. However, the final figure received was only £3.152m which would lead to a reduction in the contingency from that outlined in the paper. The meeting was also advised that the ability to go over the Council tax increase threshold of 5 percent, was issued by government to just 6 local authorities.

The Board was informed that the monitoring report provided the quarter three projected financial outturn information for the general fund, housing revenue account (HRA) and capital programme. The quarter three overall revenue projected outturn was for a balanced position to be achieved based on the latest assumptions, including that the expenditure control mechanisms remain in place for the remainder of the year. A small contingency remained unused for any unexpected costs over the final quarter.  The Board was advised that the Budget report set out the proposed 2025/26 budget and council tax based on.

·     Increasing council tax by 4.99% in 2025/26 in line with the government’s annual referendum threshold which can be broken down into a 2.99% basic increase and a 2% uplift by way of the Adult Social Care (ASC) precept.

·     Implementation of the approved financial strategy.

·     Implementation of £7.8m of further savings, efficiencies, and additional income generation required to set a legally balanced budget and support the basis of a more financially sustainable council moving forward.

·     Borrowing to fund the Special Educational Needs and Disability services revenue expenditure above the level of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) High Needs grant. It will also be considered with government if it would be prudent to obtain a capitalisation direction associated with the 2024/25 and 2025/26 interest costs on the accumulated DSG deficit.

·     Recognise that the government must come up with a permanent solution to return the SEND system both locally and nationally to financial sustainability.

·     Recognition that the council is technically insolvent from the 1 April 2025 onwards as the accumulated deficit on the DSG will be greater than the total reserves held by the council, with a negative overall general fund position and is only protected by the statutory override.

The report also included the latest Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) covering the 3-year period  ...  view the full minutes text for item 106