Issue - meetings

To receive an update on the Council’s financial monitoring position.

To receive an update on the Council’s financial monitoring position for 2025/26.

Councillor Zona Hannington, the Cabinet Member: Finance, Governance and Customer Services provided Cabinet with the latest financial monitoring position for the year, which related to the revenue budget, capital programme and income collection.

She said that the Council had demonstrated outstanding financial management by maintaining a balanced budget for 16 consecutive years, despite the previous government having made cuts to its spending of more than £181m since 2010.  She said that this reflected the Council’s unwavering commitment to prudent financial planning, robust governance and strategic decision-making.   Over this period, she said, the Council had also received unqualified accounts from external auditors, which reaffirmed the integrity and transparency of its financial reporting.

Councillor Hannington said that, despite the extreme challenges faced nationally, particularly with regard to adult social care, children safeguarding and school travel assistance, the Council remained resilient.  She said that the current year’s projected revenue position initially indicated a £11.3m overspend, which was a significant increase since the last financial monitoring report and that this had been due to the increased demand for adult social care.  However, she said, thanks to the Council’s proactive financial management, the application of targeted adult social care contingencies, general budget contingencies and identification of in-year services had put the budget back into balance.

Councillor Hannington said that key pressures would be addressed through efficient service delivery.   She went on to say that the borough’s population of those aged over 65 had risen by 6.13% since 2021, which now made up 17.9% of the borough’s total population.  However, she said, the Council’s statutory reserves of £21.7m remained untouched, which showed the Council’s readiness for unexpected challenges and its commitment to maintaining essential services.

Councillor Hannington then listed the following key financial achievements and figures for the Council:

1. Income generated from its Grade Fund investment was over £10m per year, which yielded a return of just over 2% after the cost of borrowing, which she said, was good borrowing as it invested in the borough’s communities and delivered a return to the Council and was one of the reasons why the borough’s Council Tax levels remained one of the lowest in the West Midlands.

2. Additionally, she said that the nett income received from New Place included loan interests and dividends amounting to £2m per year after covering the Council’s costs.

The long-term return on the Council’s equity investment on New Place was forecast to be around 6%.

In terms of what this meant in respect of numbers and people within the borough, Councillor Hannington said that New Place provided accommodation for over 2,000 tenants and had brought back 48 acres of brownfield land, with 4,656 sq. metres of redundant floor space being brought back into use and working with partners to accelerate the development of brownfield land for residential use through the Telford Land Deal.

Councillor Hannington went on to say the Council was working with partners to deliver intergenerational mixed tenancy developments at Wild Walk, Donnington (329 homes that included 189 affordable homes).

She  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25