Issue - meetings

Report of Assistant Director of Finance

Purpose of report

This report summarises the approach Cherwell District Council (CDC) intends to take in order to set its 2024/25 budget and 5-year Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for the period to 2028/29 and revises the Reserves Policy. 

Recommendations

The meeting is recommended:

1.1         To note the contents of Appendix 1.

Resolved

(1)      That the report be noted.

The Committee considered a report from the Assistant Director of Finance that summarised the approach Cherwell District Council (CDC) intended to take in order to set its 2024/25 budget and 5-year Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for the period to 2028/29 and revises the Reserves Policy.

The Head of Finance advised that the Medium-Term-Financial Statement covered a five-year timeframe therefore the MTFS approved in February 2023 was to be extended by one year to cover the 2028/29 financial year.

The Head of Finance advised there was a current trend for external audits to extend beyond the end of the financial accounting year that could have an impact on the usable reserves. Because of this, section 6.2 had been introduced in the revised Reserves Policy to allow the Section 151 Officer delegated authority, in consultation with the Portfolio holder of Finance, to manage such impact of changes to ensure the long-term resilience of the Council.

In response to a question from  the Committee regarding the actions that the Section 151 Officer could take if section 6.2 of the Reserves Policy  needed to be used, the Head of Finance advised that, as the final use of reserves was  reported to Executive in June/July in the Outturn Report, to use reserves to address audit issues in prior years after this point  under the original policy could cause time delays in getting the accounts signed off. The revision to the policy gave the S151 Officer the flexibility to manage audit issues and protect the general fund balance.

Following questions from the Committee as to whether all fees and charges would be uplifted by 10%, the Head of Finance advised that all budget holders had been encouraged to look at their fees and charges where they could be set by the Council, to ensure that costs were recovered as far as possible to reflect the inflationary rises.

Following questions from the Committee regarding whether the Leader or Portfolio holder for Finance had lobbied central government about decreases in government funding, the Head of Finance advised that they would seek a response and update  to Committee members after the meeting Following on from the response from the Head of Finance, Councillors Hodgson and Woodcock urged the Portfolio Holder to write  to central government asking them to address the level of funding, if such correspondence had not already been sent.

In response to further detailed questions from the Committee, the Head of Finance advised that responses would be sought from the relevant departments and circulated to Committee members after the meeting:

·                A breakdown of the increase in the ‘Corporate Changes’ cost of £0.909m for 2024/25 on Table 1 of Appendix 1.

·                A breakdown of the reduction in business rates income of £2.495m forecast for 2024/25 on Table 1 of Appendix 1

Resolved

(1)      That the report be noted.