Purpose

The report provides an update on
the Council’s 5-year financial forecasts and makes recommendations regarding
the revised revenue budget for 2024/25 and base budget for 2025/26.

 

The Executive recommended, and the
Council approve, in February 2023, the base budget for 2024/25, for the General
Fund Revenue Account services.  The
report sets out some revisions to the budget for 2024/25 and proposes a base
budget for 2025/26 for the Executive’s agreement and submission to Council.

 

The report also gives the context
to these budgets in the form of the latest five-year projections from the
Medium-Term Financial Strategy.

 

Revised General Fund Revenue
Budget 2024/25

The original general fund revenue
budget for 2024/25 set, for £14,883,100, required a funding shortfall of
£404,200 to be met from unallocated general reserves.  The projected shortfall has now dropped to £285,700,
with the revised budget of £14,410,200. 
This is mainly dure to the savings that have been made through the
Opportunities Plan and wider work in the year such as reducing the cost of
Homelessness provision.

 

Base General Fund Revenue
Budget 2025/26

The proposed general fund revenue
budget for 2025/26 totals £14,839,100 which is a decrease of £43,900 against
the original budget for 2024/25.  There
is a funding shortfall of £62,600 which will need to be met from
unallocated reserves.

 

5-Year Financial Forecasts

The 5-year financial forecasts
for 2024/25 to 2028/29 is predicting future funding shortfalls, each year
rising to £1.3million by 2026/27, which will be the last year that the
shortfall can be met from unallocated General Reserves.

 

The Opportunities Plan work
recommenced in 2023/24 and has served to delay the funding shortfall problem
each year.  Work will need to continue to
expand and deliver the Opportunities Plan to help manage the Council’s
financial pressures and remain resilient. 
As the easier projects have now been delivered, there may be a need to
make increasingly difficult decisions. 
Members have already started this work which will be built into the next
Opportunities Plan.

Decision

RESOLVED that the Executive:

 

(a)  approves the revised 2024/25 general
fund revenue budget, amounting to £14,410,210 as set out in Appendices A to C
to the report;

 

(b)  approves the base 2025/26 general fund
revenue budget amounting to £14,839,000, as set out in Appendices A to C to the
report;

 

(c)  notes the five-year projections from
the Medium-Term Finance Strategy in Appendix D and the work planned to address
the future funding gap; and

 

(d)  agrees to submit the updated Pay Policy, in
Appendix E to Full Council for approval.