Issue - meetings

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

The Cabinet Member: Finance, Governance and Customer Services presented the report of the Director: Finance, People & IDT which provided the latest financial monitoring position for the year relating to the revenue budget, capital programme and income collection.

Thanks to proactive financial management, the Council was projected to remain within budget at year end with a very similar position to the last round. The main pressures remained in social care and full Council was being asked to approve the changes to the Capital Programme, as detailed in Appendix C to the report.

Commenting on the report, the Leader of the Conservative Group and the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group felt that adult social care should be funded centrally by Government to prevent passing the continuing increasing demand being passed to local authorities.  The Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group reflected that Telford had been created as a new town 50 or so years ago and, therefore, it was expected that the population would grow and would become an ageing population.

Cabinet Members welcomed the report and, in response to comments, raised a number of issues, which included:

• the Government was looking at the issue of funding adult social care, which due to increased demand was a challenge for the service since it could not turn people away when the most vulnerable needed to be supported. 

• the increasing adult social care demand had been a challenge for many years, including when the previous government was in power and it would have been helpful for the Conservative Group Leader to have challenged the way this was funded at that time.

• As well as Adult Social Care, SEND provision had not been properly funded for years.

• In terms of the adult social care budget, there had been an enormous amount of work undertaken by officers but given that people in the borough were living longer, it created more demand and the Council was working hard to look at how it worked and how it supported people in different ways.

RESOLVED, that:

(a)  The 2025/26 revenue budget position, which showed that due to the proactive in-year financial management, the Council was projecting to be within budget at year end, be noted.

(b)  The estimated total reserves at the end of 2025/26 of £57.3m, which included the £21.7m Budget Strategy Reserve and £4.1m in General Balances, which both remained unused during 2025/26, be noted.

(c)  The position in relation to capital spend be noted and that FULL COUNCIL be RECOMMENDED to approve the changes to the Capital programme, as detailed in Appendix C to the report, and all associated changes to the Medium-Term Financial Strategy, which included Treasury and Prudential Indicators.