The Cabinet meeting of 24 July, 2013 will be asked to approve a strategy to address the projected £86 million over the next 5 years. The headline figure already assumes that the council will successfully deliver savings of £16.5 million this year and £22.1 million over the next 5 years - £38.6 million in total. Budget engagement is currently underway with the public to help identify savings proposals to address the £86 million budget deficit over the medium term.
Cabinet Member for Resources, Councillor Andrew Johnson, said: "We have now had more time to factor into our budget forecasting the impact of the Government's recent Spending Review. When cuts in Government grant are combined with rising inflation and the growing demand for services for children and older people, the budget gap predicted for 2018/2019 is colossal. As a council and as a city, we are facing many more years of austerity.
"Having identified savings in the region of £100 million over the last 5 financial years, we simply have no room to manoeuvre. As a result, we will certainly have to change some of our front line services in order to protect them and other services will have to be cut and some stopped altogether."
Councillor Johnson urged the public to help the council set its spending priorities for 2014/2015 by taking part in this year's budget consultation.
"Given the scale of Government cuts, we're taking a really different approach to our budget consultation this year, inviting citizens to influence and shape the proposals for savings from the outset. Through this process, we hope that citizens will get a real insight into the challenge facing the council and the city and help us to make the difficult decisions later in the year."
The Draft Budget Strategy and Medium Term Financial Strategy 2014/2015 is one of a raft of finance reports being presented to Cabinet in July, including:
The Quarter One Revenue Budget Monitoring 2013/14 (Resources Panel) which forecasts a £5 million overspend owing to greater demand for services for looked after children, children in need and older people. Senior officers are drawing up urgent plans to address the overspend and bring the budget into balance within the year.
Treasury Outturn 2012/13 and Monitoring Quarter One 2013/14 (Cabinet) which shows the council's strategy of using internal borrowing to finance new capital expenditure has yielded savings against budget of £5.9 million last year.
Outturn 2012/13 (Cabinet) which provides an update on the outturn position for the General Fund last year - a budget overspend of £3.6 million.
Reserves, Provisions and Balances Report (Cabinet) which provides an analysis of the council's reserves, provisions and balances at the year end and movements during the year, and seeks approval for various transfers to or from specific reserves.
- released: Friday 19 July, 2013