Issue - meetings
Draft Budget 2024/25
Meeting: 10/01/2024 - Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Item 32)
32 Draft Budget 2024/25 
PDF 282 KB
Purpose
For the Committee to consider and scrutinise the Council’s Draft Budget for 2024/25.
Recommendation
That the Committee scrutinises the Draft Budget 2024/25 and agrees any recommendations it wishes to submit to the Executive.
Invited:
Councillor Alaric Smith, Executive Member for Finance
Madhu Richards, the Director of Finance
Georgina Dyer, Chief Accountant
Additional documents:
- Annex A - Draft Medium Term Financial Strategy ( MTFS), item 32
PDF 57 KB
- Annex B - MTFS Graphs, item 32
PDF 110 KB
- Annex C - Draft Capital Programme, item 32
PDF 58 KB
Minutes:
The Executive Member for Finance introduced the report which set out the Council’s budget at the time of publication. There was an updated version for the meeting of the Executive the following week. The Executive Member thanked the finance team for their work on the budget.
The Director of Finance said that the proposals represented a balanced budget. The budget papers for the Executive were adjusted for recent decisions taken in respect of the review of legal services and the local government finance settlement which the Council had received on 18 December. The effect was to move the budget into a surplus position of £14,700. The version of the budget that would be presented to the Council budget setting meeting would also take into account the latest Business Rates information and any further Executive decisions that affect the budget.
The Director of Finance highlighted some key information in the report including:
· The forecast overspend in the current financial year of £433,041 over and above the approved deficit budget of £350,129.
· The draw-down of reserves over the period of the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) set out in Annex A and the need to think ahead and manage finances carefully.
· The budget pressures caused by general and wage inflation.
· The uncertainty surrounding the financial impacts of the transfer of the majority of services from Publica to the Council.
· The challenging economic environment and the fact that a number of other local authorities had issued Section 114 notices.
In discussion the Committee noted that:
· Inflation in wages and energy had created an in year overspend and the revenue position was more than double the anticipated deficit.
· The reversal of one off items from 2023/24 (para. 5.2 in the report) did not represent items that had been promised to the public and not delivered, rather it was the reversal of income contingencies which had been put aside last year against planned income.
· The main differences from last year were around the levels of income rather than expenditure, e.g. increases to planning application fees and charges for green waste licenses.
· The Council was unable to calculate the retained Business Rates figure until the end of January and this would be reflected in the final report to the Council budget setting meeting.
· A decision had been taken in 2021 to reduce the opening season for Woodstock Swimming Pool due to the high cost to the Council of keeping the pool open for longer.
· Charging green waste customers on a pro rata basis was likely to be operationally difficult to implement and would likely reduce income. The Council could look at improving the information on the website and consider the cut-off date for buying a license.
· The Council Tax base was unlikely to grow strongly in the short term and it was difficult to identify alternative funding streams so it was considered prudent to propose raising Council Tax by the maximum of £5 per band D property. This had been factored in to the MTFS.
· The ... view the full minutes text for item 32