Agenda item

Purpose: Full Council must set a balanced budget for the 2024/25 year ahead by the 11 March 2024. This is to ensure that the Council has the resources set aside to achieve its objectives and to ensure that Council Tax bills can be issued to residents across the district before the start of the new financial year. This report details the budget proposals for the year ahead that form the basis of the 2024-25 revenue budget and detail the respective Council Tax proposals and resolutions.

Resolved that: Executive referred the report to Council to consider the recommendations and:

·         Approved a further consultation on options for the opportunity for all WBC-run care homes to be run by external providers rather than through our in-house provision.

·         Approved the fees and charges as set out in appendix G.

This decision is not subject to call in as:

·      the item is due to be referred to Council for final approval.

therefore it will be implemented immediately.

Councillor Iain Cottingham introduced and proposed a report (Agenda Item 9) which set out the Revenue Budget for the forthcoming financial year.

Councillor Carolyne Culver reported that Scrutiny Commission had held an interesting debate relating to the paper and noted that key themes had included the need for the Council to look at long term challenges within Adult Social Care; Special Educational Needs and the level of spending within that area; the idea of involving parish councils in the responsibility for bin maintenance and collection; and the fact that there were forty members of the public that were costing the Council approximately £10m per year. It was suggested that in relation to the latter subject it may prove useful to have some anonymised case studies to review and understand the needs.

Councillor Jeff Brooks commented that the most important responsibility that Councillors had was to keep people safe and support the vulnerable, and that both cost time and money. Councillor Brooks stated that it was not a lament that forty people cost that amount but that it was worth analysing why costs were so expensive.

Councillor Cottingham noted that he was hoping to produce some benchmarking figures later in the year which would compare the Council’s financial resilience against other local authorities.

Councillor Brooks seconded the recommendations within the report.

RESOLVED that: Executive referred the report to Council to consider the recommendations and:

·         Approved a further consultation on options for the opportunity for all WBC-run care homes to be run by external providers rather than through our in-house provision.

·         Approved the fees and charges as set out in appendix G.