Find out what happened at the latest Warwickshire County Council Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 23 January 2024.
At its meeting on Tuesday 23 January, Warwickshire County Council’s Cabinet discussed the financial management of the authority ahead of the February Full Council meeting, which will focus on the 2024/25 budget setting.
The first paper outlined the forecast financial position of the organisation at the end of 2023/24. It noted a forecast net service overspend of £7.281m and outlined how this would be addressed for the end of the financial year. Read more: 2023-24 Financial Monitoring – Forecast Position as at Quarter 3
Cabinet continued discussions around the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) that began during the December Cabinet meeting exploring 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. Read more: 2024/25 Budget and 2024-29 Medium Term Financial Strategy – Updated Information
Approval was also given for the Council’s Treasury Management and Investment Strategies for the period 2024/25. The Treasury Management Strategy sets out how the Council manages its cash balances, and how borrowing requirements will be managed, while the Investment Strategy Sets out how the Council will manage non-treasury investments. Read more: Treasury Management Strategy and Investment Strategy
Cabinet also approved a provisional allocation of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) – the ringfenced grant from Government that provides each local authority with an allocation of funding for schools and services for pupils – for the period 2024/25. Read more: Allocation of 2024/25 Dedicated Schools Grant
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 before Christmas when presenting their very positive annual audit report to the Audit and Standards Committee.”
Outside of internal financial matters, Cabinet noted the progress made to date on this Creating Opportunity in Warwickshire workstreams. This is a long-term mission that will tackle the challenges facing some of its residents and places.
This is Warwickshire's response to the national Levelling Up agenda which means creating opportunity for all Warwickshire residents especially those who live in places where inequalities exist.
Progress to date has included collaborative working with Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council and Stratford on Avon District Council which has resulted in the recent development of Creating Opportunities place plans that identify local priority places and groups where targeted interventions are being developed.
Cabinet approved the ongoing work around Creating Opportunities and endorsed a new publication which summarises the journey so far along with a supporting website to create a digital home to raise awareness of the work to create opportunities across the Warwickshire.
Creating Opportunities – The journey so far and the Creating Opportunities website will launch in February 2024. Read more: Creating Opportunities Update
A copy of all the Cabinet reports are available here: https://democracy.warwickshire.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=146&MId=3648&Ver=4
The full webcast of the public meeting can be found here: https://warwickshire.public-i.tv/core/portal/home