Issue - meetings

RESOLVED TO RECOMMEND

The approval of the revised Medium Term Financial Strategy for the period 2020/21 – 2024/25, including the recommendations at Section 2 of the Strategy.

Decision

RESOLVED TO RECOMMEND

The approval of the revised Medium Term Financial Strategy for the period 2020/21 – 2024/25, including the recommendations at Section 2 of the Strategy.

Corporate objectives

The Medium Term Financial Strategy supports the delivery of all five of the Corporate Objectives.

Section 151 Officer

This is a S151 Officer report.

Deputy Monitoring Officer

No comments to add to the report.

Advice

Councillor Elliot introduced the report to members. The MTFS has been much more challenging to pull together this year than in previous years due to the unprecedented economic uncertainty caused by Covid. Assumptions are an inherent part of forecasting, but the unknown severity and duration of the expected recession means that all the forecasts in this report are subject to potentially significant change over the coming months. The detail behind the forecasts and the rationale behind them are outlined in the report, but key points to note are that the underlying savings requirement to deliver a sustainable council into the medium-term remains the same as it was last year at £1.8m over the 4 years. The financial impact of Covid based on available evidence and the assumptions in the report is currently estimated to be £10m between the current year and 2024/25. The fundamental element of the recommended strategy is that the Council separates out the underlying savings requirement from the Covid impact. It’s recommended that the Council continue to seek efficiencies to deliver the underlying requirement of £1.8m, and treats the Covid pressure as a time limited pressure that can be funded from one-off sources, i.e. reserves. It is planned that MTFS updates to Members be increased in frequency over the coming months to effectively monitor both the forecasts and the robustness of the recommended strategy.

Councillor Birnie referred to page 32, paragraph 6.3 and sought clarification on the revenue support grant.

J Deane responded by saying the report shows the change from the previous MTFS. When the four year deal came out in 2016, it was scheduled to end in 2020 and another multi-year deal was supposed to replace it. There was a roll over because the government’s new deal was not ready in time so we had already planned to have a reduction in funding over that period so as we managed to increase our efficiencies and the government funding was kept the same, this has created a gap and we are going to get more than we thought we would.

Recommendations agreed.