Budget assumptions and key service issues
The initial projection of our spending requirements in 2007/08 based on providing the same level of service as in 2006/07 indicated that £204.366m would be required to fund our services which was £6.137m above the amount of available resources.
The spending review conducted by the council identified areas for investment in priority services and also sought efficiencies required to bring the expenditure requirement down to £198.229m to match the available resources. This was achieved with a small contribution from reserves and allowed the council to set a budget of £198.229m.
The 2007/08 budget of £198.229m represents a 4.8% increase on last year. The factors influencing the setting of the approved budget are summarised below.
Price increases - £9.8m representing a 5.2% increase in our budget requirement relates to inflationary increases in pay and prices. Within this overall increase there are some exceptional costs increases that have to be met. Like many households, the council is faced with big cost increases for utilities, e.g. 50% for electricity and 12% for water. Waste disposal costs will also rise substantially, by 13%, and public transport by 4%. Apart from these exceptional items, we allow no more than 2.5% generally for inflation in other services where externally determined charges are outside the direct control of the council and impose a cash freeze on general supplies and services budgets. Services are expected to manage these costs within the budgets allocated to them.
Increase service demands - apart from the above price increases the council has had to find £2.6m to meet the increased demand on our children’s and adult care services, including transport costs for children with special needs.
New investment - the budget also provides for £1m of new investment in priority services such as the provision of a new community building in Higher Broughton, development of primary care and community care facilities in partnership with the Primary Care Trust and initiatives to improve the access to employment for disadvantaged groups.
Service efficiencies – The council has continued its detailed scrutiny of services and identified service efficiencies and budget savings totalling £6.4m.
A summary of budget changes from 2006/07 to 2007/08
This page was last updated on 31 May 2007
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