Find out what happened at the latest Warwickshire County Council Cabinet meeting.
At its meeting on Thursday 14 December, Warwickshire County Council’s Cabinet discussed a paper setting out initial options prepared by officers to deliver a balanced budget and five-year Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), which forms the basis for the political groups to develop their proposals for Council budget day next year (8 February).
The paper gave Cabinet a range of options from officers to meet the Council’s legal requirement to set a balanced budget for 2024/25, with circa £69m of budget balancing measures over the five years of the MTFS (2024-2029) to meet the much higher extra costs arising from inflation and rising demand.
Cllr Peter Butlin, portfolio holder for finance and property, said: “Like all upper tier Councils we have experienced significant financial pressures this year in social care, education and home to school transport, arising from the combination of inflation and rapidly rising demand. Many of these issues reflect fundamental national challenges which need to be addressed sustainably.
“The fact that we have a clear route to set a balanced budget and five-year MTFS in such a challenging context reflects the Council’s strong financial resilience and sustainability, which our external auditors highlighted to members only last month when presenting their very positive annual audit report to the Audit and Standards Committee.”
A further report to Cabinet in January will reflect a number of additional updates, in particular the final Local Government Financial Settlement which is expected shortly before Christmas.
Elsewhere in the meeting, Cabinet also approved entering into a joint agreement with Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) in which Warwickshire would join up with other counties to procure water for the council’s sites. This will result in a saving and also enable more accurate evaluation of consumption and subsequent further financial and energy savings, supporting our Sustainable Futures Strategy.
Cabinet also agreed to tender for a new accommodation-related support contract which provides support and assistance to vulnerable young people in the 16-25 years age bracket. The revised contract will change support, following responses to a recent consultation, making it more responsive to needs while realising greater efficiencies.
Cllr Butlin explained: “Contractual prudence means that we have to look at all agreements and not only ensure that providers are performing as expected but that the contract is the best solution.
“In this instance, the best solution is to intervene before we reach the stage of accommodated support wherever possible, allowing us to target resources to the most vulnerable and also providing better opportunities for the young people that we support.”
The full webcast of the public meeting can be found here