Issue - meetings

The purpose of this report is to inform Members of the budget process for 2024/25 as required by Part 6, Section 2 of the Council’s Constitution.

The Group Head Finance and Section 151 Officer introduced the report to members, where he explained that the report outlined the budget process for 2024/25 that would be followed, members were being asked to note its content which was a high-level outline of the process and had already been approved by Policy and Finance Committee at its meeting on 11 July 2023. The detailed committee budget was due to be presented to Corporate Support Committee at its meeting scheduled to be held on 31 January 2024 and a medium-term financial report which would contain more information ahead of the next committee report would be presented to Policy and Finance Committee at its meeting on 26 October 2023, finally he reminded members that the budget challenges previously documented still remained.

The Chair then invited questions, where clarity was sought regarding the uncertainty over the long-term government funding, it was confirmed that the medium-term financial report and a follow-up report would be presented to the Policy and Finance Committee meeting scheduled for 6 December 2023 and this would be when the details might be provided to the council from Government. It was explained that certain assumptions would be made within the forecast, however these come with uncertainty.

Members noted the report.