Issue - meetings
Council Budget 2018/19
Meeting: 18/12/2017 - Cabinet (Item 71)
71 Medium Term Financial Strategy and Council Budget 2018/19 
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Minutes:
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Councillor Phil Davies, Leader of the Council, said:
“We have a responsibility to set a fair, sustainable and balanced budget. This is a challenge which gets more difficult every year, as austerity policies continue to bite.
We continue to be forced into making ever more difficult decisions, but we will never shirk our responsibilities to Wirral residents and will always find ways to use our diminishing resources to improve our borough and the quality of life our residents can enjoy.
We will invest public resources where it will deliver the most impact – in creating jobs, in improving the local environment, and in protecting our most vulnerable children, adults and families.
We have committed to 20 Pledges in our Wirral Plan and, despite the continued reductions in our budget, we are determined we will deliver on what we promised.”
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Councillor Phil Davies introduced a report which informed that the Cabinet, throughout the year, received financial updates through which the Council’s financial position was revised, considered and understood. The Council was in the process of producing its budget for 2018/19. The report updated Members on the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and included details of the preparations for the next financial year. It contains the following details:
· The approach to the preparation of the 2018/19 budget. It was currently anticipated that the Council would set a balanced budget in 2018/19 through the use of one off funding, Council Tax decisions and the implementation of a number of financial proposals that would close the funding gap.
· An update on the progress of the MTFS.
· Details of the main financial challenges and changes that would occur during the next financial year. The Council continued to face a funding gap projected at £61 million due in part to the Government’s austerity measures, £25 million investment in Children’s Services and increasing demand for services.
· The key financial factors affecting 2018/19 including growth, savings and changes to funding including income. In relation to the latter, the Cabinet at its meeting on 19 February 2018 would consider a Council Tax increase of 4.99% for next year. This was made up of a 1.99% rise to fund a number of Council wide pressures and an Adult Social Care precept of 3% to finance pressures faced by the service. The Council at its meeting on 5 March 2018 would be requested to agree Council Tax amounts for 2018/19.
· The use of general fund balances, earmarked reserves and other sources of one off funding to support services and bridge the budget gap faced in 2018/19.
Councillor Phil Davies informed that he wanted to make progress on next year’s budget. He informed that the people of Wirral had placed their trust in Labour to defend the services they relied upon, to bring investment and jobs to the borough, and to protect the environment, which played such a vital role in the lives of residents and visitors alike.
Councillor Davies informed that to deliver these outcomes, the Council needed to ... view the full minutes text for item 71