Agenda item

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

The Cabinet Member: Finance, Governance & Customer Services presented the report of the Director: Finance, People & IDT.

Since the last update presented to Cabinet in January 2025, the national picture had remained the same with many Councils continuing to face extreme challenges around Adult Social Care, however these pressures had begun to stabilise.

The report set out the latest financial monitoring position for the year relating to the revenue budget, capital programme and income collection.  It provided the latest projections in relation to the projected outturn which was expected to be over budget by £4.713m at year end, however noted a further reduction of £0.119m since the last financial monitoring and that the use of budget contingencies would bring the Council’s position within budget. The current projected position would require use of all of the one-off contingency earmarked for Social Care and would leave a balance of £1.196m in the general contingency.

Detailed in section 5.2.1 of the report, there was projected variances over £0.250m, which remained the same as the previous report with the key variance in Adult Social Care of £6.7m additional investment needed for the cost of providing care packages across all client groups.

Telford & Wrekin’s Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficit remained the same as previous reports and had been a result of budget pressures relating to High Needs provision with these pressures continuing in 2024/25. The current position was that the deficit was currently projected to significantly increase in 2024/25, from £1.82m at the start of the year to approximately £6m by year end. At the time of the meeting, the Council were still awaiting further details of the Government’s intention to set out plans for reforming the SEND system in 2025.

There had been an improvement of £0.092m on council-wide underspend as a result of business rates levy income. The Capital Programme had remained the same since the last report presented with a projected spend of £91.6m against a budget of £93.1m, indicating some re-phrasing into 2025/26 required at year end.

The Council had continued its excellent track record of strong financial management and budget holders would continue their work to manage budgets as effectively as possible to address in-year financial pressures.

There were no further comments from Cabinet Members on the report.

The Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group welcomed the report and was pleased to see further improvements on the Council’s current financial position since the last report presented to Cabinet. He thanked Officers and the local authority for their combined efforts in managing the budgets.

The Leader of the Conservative Group recognised the work of the Council’s Finance Team and expressed his thanks for the briefings that had been conducted.

RESOLVED that:-

a)    the 2024/25 revenue budget position, which shows that, after applying budget contingencies, the Council is projecting to be within budget at year end, and this is without having to use the Budget Strategy or General Fund reserves be noted;

b)   the position in relation to capital spend be noted; and

c)    the collection rates for NNDR, council tax and sales ledger be noted.