Purpose

To agree the MTFS
Strategy

Content

Agreed to provide for £46.7m of
investment (almost 70% of which is social care related), to include
at least (Section 9 of the report):

·       
£20m for Health and Adults Services

·       
£12m for Children’s Services

·       
£1m for Universal Credit migration pressure

·       
£200k on-going new investment decision to provide a further
Emotional Wellbeing Hub, in support of Our Greenwich (Section 9.13
of the report).
 
Agreed to provide £1.0m one-off
funding of Carbon Offset Section 106 for eligible expenditure from
the “Together for Greenwich: Co-operation for the
Future” (Section 9.14 of the report).
 
Agreed to use the one-off surplus
distribution of £0.7m from the national Business Rates Levy
to support operation of the Greenwich Supports Discretionary
Council Tax Hardship Fund and revenues collection (Section 10.10 of
the report).
 
Agreed £1.2m of new savings /
income proposals for 2025/26 increasing to £2.1m in 2028/29
(Section 10 of the report).
 
Noted the changes to the Local Council
Tax Support scheme, considered by Cabinet and Council on 29 January
2025 and the impact upon the MTFS (Section 10.8 of the report).
 
Agreed new fees and charges for 2025/26
(Appendix C of the report)
 
Agreed the Medium Term Financial
Strategy 2025/26 to 2028/29 as set out in this report and
subsequently recommended to Council for approval:
 

·       
the MTFS as per this report

·       
that the borough element of council tax is raised by:

o  
2.00% adult social care precept

o  
2.99% main council tax rate

·       
a balanced budget for 2025/26
 
Noted that the impact of over a decade
of government austerity has led to the council facing around
£150m of pressures over that period, when combined with huge
demographic demands and price inflation it is challenging to set a
balanced budget for each financial year. (Section 4 of the
report)
 
Noted the number of properties rated
for council tax has grown by less than 1% year on year for the
fourth consecutive year. (Section 8.22 of the report)
 
Noted the impact of the
Government’s Financial Settlement and related developments
around the MTFS (Section 8 of the report):
 
·       
the Chancellor announced a one-year Settlement only for 2025/26,
which allows certainty for a one-year period
·       
a continuation of the break from the London wide Business Rates
pooling arrangement for 2025/26
·       
the Schools funding position
 
Noted the schedule of fees and charges
rates for 2025/26 (Appendix D of the report) being agreed under
delegated authority
 
Noted budgetary impact of reprofiling
previously agreed income / savings proposals of £2.4m in
2025/26. (Section 9.10 of the report)
 
Noted a forecasted overall resourcing
gap for 2026/27 in excess of £40m, rising to almost
£100m by 2028/29 (Section 15 of the report), before future
government grant and council tax decisions
 
Noted the potentially significant
financial risks to the MTFS going forward due to the uncertainty
from proposed funding reform from 2026/27 onwards (Section 14 of
the report)
 
Noted the outcome of the results of the
public consultation which closed on 24 December 2024 (Section 17 of
the report)
 
Noted that the MTFS is a continuous
process and will be updated in Summer 2025
 
Noted that it shall have regard to the
s151 / Chief Finance Officer’s statement in Section 16 of the
report, as required under s25(2) of the Local Government Act 2003,
when making decisions in this report
 
Noted the comments of the Overview and
Scrutiny Committee of its meeting on 30 January 2025 (Appendix E of
the report)