Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to report of the Chief Officer Resources.

The Chief Officer Resources presented the report which provided an update on the progress made with the Strategic Business Reviews during the period October to December 2021, the latest assessment of the financial achievement for the current financial year and the latest estimated achievement between 2022/23 and 2026/27.

In recognising the challenges that the Council faces in the short, medium and long term, a programme of Strategic Business Reviews have been developed to deal with the potential funding gaps identified in the MTFS (Table 1) and to improve the financial resilience of the Council.

In agreeing the budget for 2021/2022 the estimated achievement of Bridging the Gap (BtG) was £755,000 contributing to a surplus budget of £1.3m.

The latest assessment of the potential achievement of the BtG programme (as per the MTFS) was estimated to be £6.7m between 2022/2023 and 2026/2027, and Table 2 provided the annual assessment of achievement.

The Officer confirmed that the Council’s Corporate Leadership Team, supported by officers from all services continued to identify / develop additional BtG proposals to close the future years’ budget gaps.

The budget gaps identified within the report were based upon the Medium Term Financial Strategy assumptions included within the 2022/2023 Budget Report. These assumptions included:

·        An increase in funding from Welsh Government of 3% for 2022/2023, 2% for 2023/2024 and cash flat thereafter.

·        Pay awards and price inflation of 2% per annum.

·        Annual cost pressures £2m per annum (from 2023/24).

The Officer pointed out that variations to/from these assumptions would impact the budget gaps.

The Committee AGREED to recommend that the report be accepted and Members note progress of the Bridging the Gap programme. (Option 1)

As this was the last meeting in the cycle prior to the elections, the Chair took the opportunity to thank the Vice-Chair, Members and Officers for their support during the year.