Purpose

For Cabinet to recommend the final budget to
Council

Content

Cabinet received a report on
the Medium Term Financial Plan 2025/26 to 2027/28 and Capital
Programme 2025/26 to 2028/29 for Buckinghamshire
Council.
 
The Revenue Budget was for the
financial years 2025/26 – 2027/28. The financial position for
the Council was extremely challenging with significant pressures
identified in relation to both the legacy effects of high inflation
and ongoing increases in demand for key services, in line with
those being experienced nationally. The Council discharged more
than 1,300+ statutory duties and was facing increased demand
pressures in key services such as Adult Social Care,
Children’s Services, Home to School Transport and Special
Education Needs and Disabilities. This year had become the most
difficult to date in responding to these challenges whilst
delivering a balanced budget, and this had been achieved through a
significant programme of additional savings and income.
 
The Council had a strong track
record of delivering savings with £75.4m delivered in the
first 4 years following the inception of the new unitary council, a
further £41.3m of income and savings currently on-track for
delivery in 2024-25. A further programme of £115.6m of new
income and savings had been identified as part of the 2025-26 to
2027-28 Revenue Budget.
 
The Final Local Government
Settlement had not yet been published at the time of the agenda
being sent out but the Council had received an extra
£200,000. Further information was awaited from the Government
on the longer term position. The Section 151 Officer reported that
the Council had not been fully reimbursed for the increase in
National Insurance contributions; there was no reimbursement for
increases through the supply chain but there had been some
reimbursement for direct costs (80% coverage, so the Council had to
find an extra £800,000).  It was
proposed that any small changes to funding in the final settlement
be managed through the Mitigating Future Financial Risks
reserve.
 
Overall, the key elements of
the final revenue budget portfolio proposals include unavoidable
growth of £49.8m, Inflation of £26.6m, and net savings
and income changes of £46.2m in 2025-26.
 
The budget proposed had been
built on the agreed Council Tax base and assumes a 2.99% increase
in basic Council Tax and a 2% increase for the Adult Social Care
Precept, giving a total increase of 4.99%. This was the maximum
allowable without triggering a local referendum.
 
Whilst this budget provided the
best available estimates for the 2025/26-2027/28 financial years,
there was significant risk around future income, cost and
especially funding projections, with the long-promised review of
Local Government funding due to be implemented for 2026-27. The
external environment was continuously monitored, and financial
risks were managed through risk management revenue reserves
contained within these budget proposals.
 
The Capital Programme was
presented for 4 years as many schemes span multiple financial
years. In total the programme includes £612.5m of projects.
As with previous years it was proposed that a recommendation be
made to Council in February for delegation to be given to Cabinet
to add up to £100m worth of schemes to the capital programme,
to be funded through prudential borrowing, subject to a robust
business case being approved. This would enable additional
priorities, such as regeneration and housing projects, to come
forward and be added to the capital programme once positive
business cases are fully developed.
 

RECOMMENDED to Full Council to
–

 

1)     
approve
the Medium-Term Financial Plan 2025/26 to 2027/28 and Capital
Programme 2025/26 to 2028/29. 

2)     
approve
the ‘Special Expenses’ budgets, precepts and associated
services for Aylesbury Town, High Wycombe
Town and West Wycombe Church Yard (Appendix 2 and
3). 

3)     
delegate
to Cabinet, decisions to add up to £100m to the Capital
programme, to be funded by Prudential
Borrowing. 

4)     
agree the
2025-26 Schools Funding Formula, in line with the National Funding
Formula but scaled to 99.46% for
affordability. 

5)     
approve
the Council Tax Reduction Scheme Policy (Appendix
4). 

6)     
approve
the Business Rates Discretionary Rate Relief Policy (Appendix
5). 

7)     
approve
the Council Tax Discounts and Premiums Policy (Appendix
6). 

8)     
note
(Appendix 7) Bucks Business Group Response to the
Budget.  

9)     
note that
a supplementary report, the formal Council Tax Resolution,
will accompany the final Budget to Full
Council.

10) 
note the
Equality Impact assessment for the proposed budget (Appendix
8).