Agenda item

The Committee considered the Revenue Budget Strategy 2022/23 to 2024/25 which had been considered and approved by the Cabinet as its meeting on the 17^th January, 2021.  It was also noted that members of the Committee had recently attended consultation events on the budget which had provided them with an opportunity to ask questions and seek clarification on various aspects of the budget.

The report provided Members with the current view of the Revenue Budget for 2022/23 together with indicative figures for the 2024/25 financial years.

The Committee considered the following detailed budget information appended to the Strategy relevant to its remit.

·         Appendix A – Corporate Budget Strategy 2022/23 to 2024/25

·         Appendix A(i) – Efficiency summary for the Social Care & Health Service

·         Appendix A(ii) – Growth Pressures summary for the Social Care & Health Service

·         Appendix B – Budget monitoring report for the Social Care & Health Service

·         Appendix C – Charging Digest for the Social Care & Health Service

The Head of Financial Services provided an overview of the report.   Key points covered included:

·         Committee was advised that the report provided members with an update on the latest efficiency proposals. It considered the budget validations necessary, the service pressures and it took into account the provisional budget settlement which was issued by Welsh Government to Authorities on the 21st December 2021.

·         While the provisional settlement was higher than had been planned the scale of expenditure pressures were at an unprecedented level.  Given this the Authority would need to continue to provide efficiency savings with this and future years budget.

·         On an all-Wales basis, the local government provisional settlement increased by 9.4% and Carmarthenshire increased by 9.2%.  The Aggregate External Finance (AEF) increased to £311.957 million in 2022/23.  This would help to provide for inflationary factors, demographics and demand changes to services, not least with social care.

·         Welsh Government had also issued details of Service Specific Grants alongside the provisional settlement on 21 December 2021 at an all-Wales level.  It was a concern that many remained at a similar level to previous years given the impact of pay awards and general inflation.

·         It was stated that the final settlement would not be published until the 1^st March 2022.

·         The Ministers letter which accompanied the settlement was explicit that Welsh Government expects Council to meet the cost of any future pay awards from the improved settlement.

·         It was highlighted that the budget reductions required for 2022/23 was £3.8m which would ensure, based on the current projections that essential services could still be delivered.

·         Taking into account the provisional settlement a proposed Council tax increase next year was 4.39%. 

The following questions/issues were raised on the report:-

·         It was asked if the review of transport services included making better use of the buses available included services such as Dolen Teify.

The Senior Business Support Manager reassured the Committee that the Authority was ensuring that they were making best use of the available resources and would look at the installation of charging points.

·         Officers were asked what impact Covid had had on the demographics and also the effect of inward migration into the County.

Officers advised that they were uncertain when the census data would be received and that data regarding inward migration was not captured. It was confirmed that data would be fed through, however the timing of this was unknown.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that: