How our budget is approved
We publish an annual budget for the forthcoming year, and a medium-term financial plan covering 3 financial years, every March.
The budget, including our share of Council Tax, has to be agreed by full Council in February.
Work to prepare the next budget typically starts as soon as the latest one is agreed because it is a complex process - involving information gathering, analysis and important decisions.
In any year there are some uncertainties within the budget. This is because, even in 'normal' times, predicting spending on demand-led budgets with a high degree of accuracy is difficult – and the uncertainties caused by the pandemic have undoubtedly made the planning process more challenging.
That said, there are consistent key things we need to know when preparing our budget. These include:
- how much we need to spend on maintaining our services to fulfil our statutory responsibilities and address local priorities
- the impact of differences between the budget and current-year spending which emerge through the in-year budget monitoring process
- the additional spending pressures we face for increases in demand, service developments, price increases, inflation and pay
- the level of savings and income we can achieve
- how much we will receive from central government
Once we know all these figures, we can the calculate the amount we need to collect from Council Tax and other income, including money from fees and charges and business rates and we estimate what we think we will get from the government.
We can then get to work to balance the books.
Specifically, the budget planning process starts with senior staff considering spending pressures in the spring and these are reviewed and revised during the year.
Cabinet then sets out its initial guidelines over the summer, and discussions continue through the autumn, looking at all the options for how we will balance the budget through savings, increased income and managing down demand. We usually get our central government grant figures around Christmas.
The options we have considered are then refined in the new year, taking account of the grant we receive from government, with a draft budget published in early January. This is then scrutinised by key committees and their feedback considered by Cabinet.
The draft budget is then finalised and presented to County Council for approval in February. The final budget is published in March.