Issue - meetings

This report will be subject to pre-scrutiny at a meeting of the Budget Scrutiny Working Group due to take place on 21^st November 2024.  Any recommendations arising from that meeting on this subject will be reported to the Executive Committee in a supplementary pack.

The Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer presented the MTFP Tranche 1 report (including fees and charges) for 2025/26 to 2027/28.

The Executive Committee was reminded that the Council set a three-year MTFP every year, with the final Council Tax resolutions being approved by Council in February.  Members were asked to note that this year’s process took into account the following factors:

·             The starting point from the 2024/25 MTFP being neutral starting balances (which was actually a £63,000 surplus on the date of the meeting).

·             This was the first budget under a new Government and the local government settlement would be for only one year in duration for the first year of the plan. Future budgets would cover multiple years.

·             The present cost of living crisis continued to impact on the Borough’s most vulnerable residents.

·             Three years’ accounts had been submitted (2020/21 to 2022/23).  Like many other Councils, the authority would receive a disclaimer opinion on these accounts. 

·             There was continued uncertainty of the Government’s funding for projects detailed in the Chancellor’s statement on the 30^th October 2024, as allocations were not yet known.

·             There was also uncertainty over what would be required by the new Government and other stakeholders.

·             Loss of key personnel, present vacancy rates, and staff retention needed to be noted.

·             Business Rates, Council Tax income and associated collection rates and reliefs linked to the “cost of living” crisis and Covid-19 grants were still working their way through the authority’s system.

·             Inflation was moving back to the Government’s target level of 2 per cent.

As such, it was considered prudent to split the budget process into two tranches, in line with the approach taken in recent years.   The initial tranche would seek to close as much of the deficit as possible using information known as at the end of October 2024, after the Chancellor’s statement but before the Local Government Settlement and seeking approval for those savings to be implemented at Council in January 2025.  The second tranche would be presented after the Christmas break, for which approval would be sought in February 2025.  This tranche would take account of the Local Government Settlement, in respect of which the final detail would not be known until early January 2025.

The Committee was informed that the emerging national picture was in many ways quite similar to the previous year:

·             The war in Ukraine had still not been resolved and was impacting on inflation rates for everyone.

·             Many Councils, including Redditch Borough Council, had declared “Climate Emergencies” and had challenging carbon reduction targets to deliver by 2030, 2040 and 2050.  These needed to move into the implementation phase.

·             The Office for Local Government was looking at Council data to assess performance and to try to predict if Councils were getting into difficulty.

·             The data provided by the Council was important as the Government worked on an allocation method using data to inform decisions.

·             In the Local Government arena:

o     There were a number of Local Authorities that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53