Content

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.