Issue details

The report provides an update on the Council’s 5-year financial forecasts and makes recommendations regarding the revised revenue budget for 2024/25 and base budget for 2025/26.

The Executive recommended, and the Council approve, in February 2023, the base budget for 2024/25, for the General Fund Revenue Account services.  The report sets out some revisions to the budget for 2024/25 and proposes a base budget for 2025/26 for the Executive’s agreement and submission to Council.

The report also gives the context to these budgets in the form of the latest five-year projections from the Medium-Term Financial Strategy.

Revised General Fund Revenue Budget 2024/25

The original general fund revenue budget for 2024/25 set, for £14,883,100, required a funding shortfall of £404,200 to be met from unallocated general reserves.  The projected shortfall has now dropped to £285,700, with the revised budget of £14,410,200.  This is mainly dure to the savings that have been made through the Opportunities Plan and wider work in the year such as reducing the cost of Homelessness provision.

Base General Fund Revenue Budget 2025/26

The proposed general fund revenue budget for 2025/26 totals £14,839,100 which is a decrease of £43,900 against the original budget for 2024/25.  There is a funding shortfall of £62,600 which will need to be met from unallocated reserves.

5-Year Financial Forecasts

The 5-year financial forecasts for 2024/25 to 2028/29 is predicting future funding shortfalls, each year rising to £1.3million by 2026/27, which will be the last year that the shortfall can be met from unallocated General Reserves.

The Opportunities Plan work recommenced in 2023/24 and has served to delay the funding shortfall problem each year.  Work will need to continue to expand and deliver the Opportunities Plan to help manage the Council’s financial pressures and remain resilient.  As the easier projects have now been delivered, there may be a need to make increasingly difficult decisions.  Members have already started this work which will be built into the next Opportunities Plan.