Issue - meetings

This report informs the Committee of the Council’s revenue budget targets presented to the Strategy & Resources Committee in July.  The report seeks guidance on the preparation of the Committee’s service estimates for 2024/25.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Note the implications of the budget targets presented to Strategy & Resources Committee on 13 July 2023.

(2)      Consider how additional income or savings can be generated to address the projected Council wide funding gap of £1.1m in 2024/25, rising to £2.5m by 2027/28.

(3)      Note that owing to the Council’s projected budget deficit, any additional new revenue growth items (i.e. service enhancements resulting in increased net expenditure) supported by Policy Committees will need to be fully funded from existing budgets.

The Committee received a report informing them of the Council’s revenue budget targets that were presented to the Strategy & Resources Committee in July.  The report was seeking guidance on the preparation of the Committee’s service estimates for 2024/25.

The following matters were considered:

a)            Pay for Local Plan Officers. A Member of the Committee asked who is responsible for ensuring the pay for the Officers involved in working on and delivering the Local Plan and queried whether if falls under S&R. The Chair informed the Committee that the budgets to cover that come under LPPC and explained that items regarding resourcing and local plan development will come back to this Committee, before then feeding into the larger scope of work for the full budget, which will then go to Full Council in February 2024.

b)            Clarification on Recommendation 2. A Member of the Committee asked for Clarification regarding Recommendation 2 and whether the Committee were being asked to come up with additional cost-saving or income-generating ideas at the current meeting. The Chair confirmed to the Committee that opportunities to contribute and information on additional income savings or generation ideas will come as a future report to the Committee.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Note the implications of the budget targets presented to Strategy & Resources Committee on 13 July 2023.

(2)      Consider how additional income or savings can be generated to address the projected Council wide funding gap of £1.1m in 2024/25, rising to £2.5m by 2027/28.

(3)      Note that owing to the Council’s projected budget deficit, any additional new revenue growth items (i.e. service enhancements resulting in increased net expenditure) supported by Policy Committees will need to be fully funded from existing budgets.