Issue - meetings

To consider the medium term financial plan.

RECOMMENDED:

a)           That the revised Medium Term Financial Plan and efficiency plan, as outlined within Report Item 7 to the Cabinet and Appendix 1 to that report, be adopted;

b)          That the Government’s offer of guaranteed funding levels up until 2020, through the publishing of the efficiency plan as laid out as Appendix 1 to Report Item 7 to the Cabinet, be accepted;

c)           That the reporting timeline,  as set out in section 7 of Report Item 7 to the Cabinet be agreed; and

d)      That the actions and development of plans for options to support the Medium Term Financial Plan, as set out in the Report Item 7 to the Cabinet, be supported.

The Cabinet considered the further actions being taken to ensure that the Council delivered a balanced budget within the context of increasing financial constraints.  It was proposed to take advantage of the Government’s option to agree their financial settlement up to and including 2019/20 to take advantage of the increased financial certainty this would provide.  The Council must publish an efficiency plan to meet the requirements of that option, and this was included as Appendix 1 to Report Item 7 considered by the Cabinet.  This factor, together with the significant changes ahead due to the Business Rate Retention Scheme, meant that the Medium Term Plan now covered the next 3 years, instead of 4 years as previously.  A number of assumptions had been made in drawing up the Plan, as summarised in section 3 of the report.

Current projections indicated there would be a total budget deficit of £4.074 million to 2020.  The restructuring undertaken to date, together with additional target savings that would be met through the newly appointed Service Managers, would be supplemented by efficiency reviews with a view to yielding a further saving of £500,000 by 2020.  This was likely to close the 2017/18 budget deficit, allowing the Council more time to implement the more major reviews necessary to close the remaining budget deficit.  These major service reviews, identified in the Council’s Delivery Plan, would contribute a further £1.136 million of savings by 2020.

RECOMMENDED:

a)           That the revised Medium Term Financial Plan and efficiency plan, as outlined within Report Item 7 to the Cabinet and Appendix 1 to that report, be adopted;

b)          That the Government’s offer of guaranteed funding levels up until 2020, through the publishing of the efficiency plan as laid out as Appendix 1 to Report Item 7 to the Cabinet, be accepted;

c)           That the reporting timeline,  as set out in section 7 of Report Item 7 to the Cabinet be agreed; and

d)      That the actions and development of plans for options to support the Medium Term Financial Plan, as set out in the Report Item 7 to the Cabinet, be supported.