Issue - meetings

To accept the information in the report and to note the progress towards realising the savings schemes for 2025/26 and previous years. 

The report was submitted by Cllr Nia Jeffreys.

DECISION

To accept the information in the report and to note the progress towards realising the savings schemes for 2025/26 and previous years. 

DISCUSSION

In the 2025/26 Budget report to the Full Council on 6 March 2025, it was reported that £3.5 million worth of savings were profiled for the 2025/26 budget. It was highlighted that this was a combination of £100k in newly-approved savings in 2025, and £3.4 million approved in previous years.

It was identified that there were difficulties to realise savings in some fields. It was stated that the new savings had been separated from the previous savings, therefore the savings relevant to 2025/26 were in Appendix 1 and in Appendix 2.

It was reported that 98% of the historical savings, for the period from the 2015/16 financial year up to the 2025/26 financial year, had been realised. ⁠It was noted that this was £33.8 million of the £34.3 million of savings.

It was highlighted that plans to the value of £590,000 remained undelivered, and the majority of them were in the Adults, Health and Well-being Department.

Reference was made to Appendix 2 which shows that new savings schemes to the value of £15.6 million and 81% of the savings had already been realised, and a further 3% were on track to be delivered on time.

It was stated that there were obvious risks to delivering the savings in some fields, particularly in the Adults, Health and Well-being Department and the Environment Department.

It was explained that the value of the savings already approved for 2026/27 onwards was noted in Appendix 3.

Following the announcement that there was a 4.1% floor for the financial settlement to Local Government, it was explained that there was no need to rush to implement savings for 2026/27. It was emphasised that there would be a need to continue to identify savings for the coming years, and this was likely to be challenging.

It was highlighted that the report had been submitted to the Governance and Audit Committee a week earlier.

Observations arising from the discussion:

·       The Cabinet Member expressed astonishment about the savings figure that had been made by the Council to date.

The meeting began at 1:00p.m. and ended at 2:30p.m.