Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance and Assets

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets presented the report, which summarised the revised budget for 2022/23 and the Cabinet’s final General Fund Revenue and Capital budget proposals and pay policy statement for 2023/24.

He reflected on the economic changes over the last twelve months, including record inflation of 11.1% compared to 5.1% when last year’s budget was agreed. Interest rates had increased eight times since then, from a base rate of 0.5% in February 2022 to 4% last week. This time last year a unit of electricity had cost 15p while a unit of gas was 3p, and these were now 40p and 10p respectively even with government caps on pricing. In addition to this, there had been three Prime Ministers and four Chancellors during the year, causing a circus of economic self-harm which everybody in the country was paying for.

The council had to act in a volatile and unpredictable financial situation, and had to take decisive action to ensure resources were balanced to deliver on their commitments, particularly considering the economic challenges which were forecast to continue into the medium term. The final Local Government Finance Settlement setting out government funding for 2023/24 only included a 3% increase in core funding and only a one-year guarantee of this. They had only received single year settlements since 2019, and no long-term guarantee of funding was expected until the Fair Funding review which had been delayed again until at least 2025/26. After a decade of austerity, this was a bitter pill to swallow.

With the latest budget monitoring report for 2022/23 reporting a £2.39m overspend against what was a reasonable and prudent budget this time last year, they were placing reliance on their general balances to balance the budget this year. These balances were finite, and this was not a long-term strategy. Greater reliance had been placed on local tax generation and the council’s own commerciality to enable them to balance the budget for 2023/24. In order to meet their financial commitments and deliver services whilst maintaining robust reserves year after year while spending pressures continued to outstrip the funding received from government, it was a challenging savings strategy to deliver.

The council’s challenge had been to continue to drive forward with the goals outlined in the COVID-19 Recovery Strategy and in the new Corporate Plan agreed earlier in the meeting. These priorities were to continue with the aim of making Cheltenham the cyber capital of the UK, to invest in the sustainable economic growth of the town, to continue to support the most vulnerable communities through the No Child Left Behind initiative, to continue their £180m affordable housing program and deliver more homes across the town, and to continue with their commitment to make the council and town net carbon zero by 2030.

He added that they were looking forward to the coronation of King Charles III and wanted Cheltenham’s communities to be able to commemorate this occasion, so they were relaunching the existing Community Pride grant as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11