Decision details

Draft Medium Term Financial Strategy 2022-27

Decision Maker: Policy and Resources Committee

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: Yes

Is subject to call in?: Yes

Purpose:

The Council’s Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) sets out the financial implications of the Council’s Corporate Plan and how this can be funded over the period of five years. Each year, the Council is required by law to approve a balanced budget, where gross expenditure is matched by available resources. The MTFS sets out the guiding principles and considerations to deliver a balanced budget.

 

The report provides the Committee with the proposed MTFS 2022/23 to 2026/27, which provides a robust, consistent, and sustainable approach to establishing and maintaining a stable and prudent financial basis on which the Council’s services are to be delivered.

 

The MTFS is one of the key strategies of the Council and the five-year strategy sets out the Council’s commitment to providing services that meet the needs of people locally and that represent good value for money.

 

The MTFS identifies a structural deficit for the five-year period covered. Upon the budget balancing for 2022/23 this structural deficit is removed based on latest estimates.

 

Contained within the MTFS are indicative figures for financial years 2022/23 to 2026/27; these figures will change in line with a number of factors, including confirmation of the government’s forthcoming funding settlement for 2022/23 (which is expected in December), which in turn will inform the budget proposals made by Policy and Resources Committee for consideration by full Council in February 2022.

 

Decision:

Resolved – That the Medium Term Financial Strategy for 2022/23 to 2026/27, be approved.

Reasons for the decision:

The Council has a legal responsibility to set an annual balanced budget, which sets out how financial resources are to be allocated and utilised. In order to successfully do so, engagement with members, staff and residents is undertaken. The recommendations in the report and appendices inform that approach and act as a pre-cursor to budget proposals scheduled to be made to Full Council on 28 February 2022.

 

Policy and Resources Committee has the responsibility to deliver budget proposals for Full Council’s consideration and the MTFS informs those proposals in line with the Wirral Plan and other key Council strategies.

 

The report presents an updated draft Medium-Term Financial Strategy for 2022/23 to 2026/27 and the budget assumptions underlying that Strategy for the Committee to approve.

 

The Medium-Term Financial Strategy informs the annual budget process – the figures incorporated in the document are indicative, subject to confirmation of annual funding following the announcement of the Government’s financial settlement and budgetary changes to be made through the Council’s formal budget setting process each year. The 2022/23 budget proposals will be presented to the Full Council in February 2022.

 

Publication date: 02/12/2021

Date of decision: 01/12/2021

Decided at meeting: 01/12/2021 - Policy and Resources Committee

Effective from: 08/12/2021

Accompanying Documents: