Issue - meetings

Background:

This report provided Cabinet with details of the provisional Local Government settlement announced by Government on 17 December 2015.

The provisional settlement was an important step in the process for setting the 2016/2017 budget, in that it gave a firmer base to the resource assumptions underpinning the draft budget.

It was noted that the overall settlement figure, announced as the ‘Settlement Funding Assessment’ (SLA), was some £11.733 million less than the adjusted figure for 2015/2016. This represented a cut of 14% compared to the national figure of 12.5%.

The Revenue Support Grant, an important component of the SFA, was provisionally set to decrease in 2016/2017 by £12.097m to £28.031m, a 30.1% cut. This was £1.241 million less than the estimate used within the Medium Term Financial Plan reported to Cabinet in September 2015 and the draft budget reported in November 2015.

The report also gave information as to the Council’s Core Spending Power, Business Rates and other grants. The potential impact of the provisional settlement on the Medium Term Financial Plan was summarised in the report.

Reasons:

These provisional levels of grant are a fundamental component of the 2016/2017 budget, and their announcement is a further stage in the process of preparing a balanced budget.