Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendations.

The Chief Executive introduced the report which provided an update on the additional budget requirement for 2022/23 in advance of receipt of the Welsh Local Government Provisional Settlement and the formal budget setting process.

The Corporate Finance Manager explained that an additional budget requirement of £16.750m was reported to Cabinet and Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee in July.  All cost pressures were considered by the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committees in September and October and all were supported with no recommended changes.  At Cabinet in October, Members were advised of an updated additional budget requirement of £18m due to various changes, the most significant of which being the increase in Employer National Insurance contributions from 1^st April 2022.  Since then, further work had been undertaken on pay and inflation assumptions and notification had been received of the draft budget increase from North Wales Fire and Rescue Service.  The impact of those, and other adjustments to existing cost pressures, had increased the additional budget requirement to existing cost pressures and had increased the additional budget requirement to £20.696m as detailed in Table 1 in the report.  Changes to additional budget requirements from Stage 1 in July were detailed in Table 2 in the report.

The report also advised that the revised minimum additional budget requirement for 2022/23 of £20.696m equated to an uplift in Welsh Government (WG) Grant of a minimum of 7%.

This was in line with other Councils across North Wales and a letter to WG had been sent by the six North Wales Council Leaders and Chief Executives in advance of the Provisional Settlement which was appended to the report.  The Settlement was due to be received on 21^st December 2021.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the revised additional budget requirement and changes to cost pressures be received and noted; and

(b)       That the solutions strategy and the required increase in Aggregate External Finance funding prior to the receipt of the Provisional Settlement be noted.