1. The Council has a statutory duty to deliver a balanced budget for the forthcoming year,
and Full Council will consider the 2026/27 budget at its meeting on 25 February 2026.
2. Part of the process of delivering a robust medium-term strategy to enable the Council to
manage its affairs soundly, is to have regard to both external and internal risks, and to
identify actions to mitigate those risks. MTFS key principles and a risk analysis together
with mitigating actions are provided in Appendix B of the MTFS.
3. Section 25 of the Local Government Act 2003 places a personal duty on an authority’s
Chief Financial Officer to make a report to Council about the robustness of the estimates
made for the purposes of the council tax calculations and the adequacy of financial
reserves and balances. The Act also requires the Council to have regard to the report
before it makes its budget and council tax decisions.
4. In relation to the statutory duty under the Act, the Chief Financial Officer considers that
the estimates are robust; the General Fund Balance is within the guideline levels
established as part of the MTFS; and the contributions to and use of earmarked reserves
will assist the Council in meeting its financial challenges and developing its response to
the pandemic and the objective of financial sustainability.
5. The Chief Finance Officer’s report will be reported to Full Council when it considers the
budget for 2026/27 on 25 February 2026. The report statement will clearly set out the
budget assumptions used to arrive at the final recommendations.
6. This report brings together the relevant information to enable Cabinet to review,
consider, and comment upon the Council’s General Fund revenue budgets before
making final recommendations to Council on 25 February 2026. This report also forms
the basis of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee’s review of the Budget at its meeting on
29 January 2026 as required under the Budget and Policy Framework.