Introduction
The County Council reviews its budgetary position annually and produces a rolling 3-year plan, known as the Medium Term Financial Plan. This plan considers the financial climate at both the local and national level together with available resources and budgetary pressures in arriving at a financial strategy.
The Medium Term Financial Plan provides a focus on both revenue expenditure (day-to-day running costs of providing services) and capital expenditure (long-term investment in infrastructure, like schools and roads), as well are setting out the Council’s overall financial strategy. As well as the MTFP publication, the Council has also produced a separate capital strategy document which concentrates on its policy relating to investment in public assets.
The County Council set a balanced revenue budget for 2021/22 as part of the Medium Term Financial Plan. This included setting a progressive capital programme of continued investment in its operational assets. The meeting of County Council on Wednesday 17th February 2021, Somerset County Council, agenda item 6, contains the full suite of documents including:
- The 2021/22 budget detail by service
- A list of transformation, savings & income generation proposals.
- Equality Impact Assessments.
- Capital and Treasury Management strategies – both contain various statutory prudential indicators.
Key announcements of the budget can be found on the Council’s Newsroom.
Summary
The following points summarise the key information for Council Tax setting as part of the balanced budget:
- A General Fund net revenue budget for 2021/22 of £356,072,100. This contains:
- A total precept requirement of £269,934,700 and sets the County Council precept for Band D council tax charges at £1,353.53 for 2021/22.
- An increase in Council Tax of 1.99% in 2021/22 (equivalent to an increase of £25.66 per Band D property).
- An increase of 3.00% to Council Tax for the Adult Social Care Precept (equivalent to an increase of £38.67 on a Band D property).
- Continuation the Council Tax precept of £12.84 within the base budget for the shadow Somerset Rivers Authority (representing no increase).
- Spend on revenue service.
Note: schools are fully funded through Dedicated Schools Grant of £199m for 2021/22
- A total capital programme of £231.7m, of which new capital bids approved of £73.9m.
- A gross revenue budget of £775.1m. This is funded by the following sources of income.