Agenda item

To provide a general update and overview of the Council’s financial position against the 2022/23 budget and looking ahead to 2023/24 and beyond.

Decision:

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

 

a)     notes the contents of the Portfolio Holder’s report and requests Officers to explore opportunities to maximise Member engagement in the budget setting process as early as possible in the financial forecast ‘cycle’ for 2023/24;

 

b)     requests Officers to present an updated financial forecast and funding options to the November 2022 meeting of Cabinet;

 

c)      approves the funding allocations set out within Table 2 within the Portfolio Holder’s report, with the associated total cost of £859,200 met from the Corporate Investment “Reserve”;

 

d)     approves a delegation to Officers, in consultation with the relevant portfolio holders, to agree the necessary arrangements to implement / take forward the items set out within the aforementioned Table 2;

 

e)     approves the acceptance of external funding made available by the Council’s Local Health Partners totalling £408,000, and authorises the relevant Portfolio Holder to approve the associated schemes / projects in consultation with the Alliance Board; and

 

f)       approves that the Council continues to be a member of the Essex Business Rates Pool and Council Tax Sharing Agreement with Essex County Council in 2023/24 if it remains financially advantageous to do so.

 

Minutes:

Cabinet considered a detailed report of the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder (A.2), which provided a general update and overview of the Council’s financial position against the 2022/23 budget and looking ahead to 2023/24 and beyond.

 

Cabinet was aware that this year had seen a number of emerging issues both nationally and globally that would have a significant impact on the Council’s own financial position e.g. inflation, supply chain disruption, energy cost increases, commodity price increases along with associated secondary impacts. This was in addition to more local pressures on net costs such as the Crematorium remaining non-operational for the first half of 2022/23. 

 

It was reported that rather than present a detailed quarterly update as would ordinarily be the case at this time each year, the Portfolio Holder’s report instead set out a high level review of the Council’s financial position and challenges ahead along with a proposed short term response. Officers continued to work on updating the forecast and exploring options to support the Council in meeting the financial challenge in 2022/23 along with setting a balanced budget in 2023/24.

 

Cabinet was informed that, given the scale of the financial challenges that the Council faced, it was proposed to engage all Members as early as possible in this process to add resilience to the Council’s financial position heading into 2023. As had been said before, the financial stewardship of the Council was a responsibility borne by all Members and it was more important than ever to work together to ensure that the Council not only balance the books but protected as many front line services as it possibly could going into 2023/24 and beyond.

 

Members were made aware that, given the speed with which national / global events had introduced significant financial pressures, and along with the scale of the impact, it was proposed to look to reserves, capital receipts and unspent balances to deliver a balanced budget and outturn position this year and next (2022/23 and 2023/24). This would provide a platform to develop sustainable proposals to manage the financial position in the medium to longer term.

 

Notwithstanding the comments above, a number of items would be funded in the immediate term given their relative urgency.

 

Cabinet was aware that the Corporate Investment Plan would continue to play a key role in supporting the Council’s decision-making processes going forward. However, given the scale of the financial challenges faced by the Council, this would be reviewed alongside the development of the budget / forecast over the coming weeks and months.

 

There was also an intention to remain within the Essex Business Rates Pool and continue with the Council Tax Sharing Agreement in partnership with Essex County Council, whilst it remained advantageous to do so.

 

In order to:-

 

(a)    engage all Members as early as possible in the process in order to add resilience to the Council’s financial position heading into 2023 and to ensure that the Council not only balanced the books but protected as many front line services as it possibly could going into 2023/24 and beyond; and

 

(b)    also enable a number of items to be funded in the immediate term given their relative urgency:-

It was moved by Councillor G V Guglielmi, seconded by Councillor Porterand:-

 

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

 

a)     notes the contents of the Portfolio Holder’s report and requests Officers to explore opportunities to maximise Member engagement in the budget setting process as early as possible in the financial forecast ‘cycle’ for 2023/24;

 

b)     requests Officers to present an updated financial forecast and funding options to the November 2022 meeting of Cabinet;

 

c)      approves the funding allocations set out within Table 2 within the Portfolio Holder’s report, with the associated total cost of £859,200 met from the Corporate Investment “Reserve”;

 

d)     approves a delegation to Officers, in consultation with the relevant portfolio holders, to agree the necessary arrangements to implement / take forward the items set out within the aforementioned Table 2;

 

e)     approves the acceptance of external funding made available by the Council’s Local Health Partners totalling £408,000, and authorises the relevant Portfolio Holder to approve the associated schemes / projects in consultation with the Alliance Board; and

 

f)       approves that the Council continues to be a member of the Essex Business Rates Pool and Council Tax Sharing Agreement with Essex County Council in 2023/24 if it remains financially advantageous to do so.

 

Supporting documents: