Powys County Council delivered a ‘modest’ surplus budget for the last financial year but is warning of a ‘significant gap’ in budget plans for future years.
The council had a £1.8 million underspend for the financial year 2023/24 which ended on March 31, after contributions to specific reserves, of £0.5 million against the £242.1 million budget – a 0.7% variance – excluding Schools and the Housing Revenue Account.
Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Transformation, Cllr David Thomas said:
“This year saw the council successfully managing its budget in an extremely challenging economic environment. High inflation and pay awards have continued to impact costs across all services, although on the whole this has been managed well through mitigating action and the utilisation of the risk budget. The financial position of the council has been monitored closely throughout the year with quarterly reports presented to Cabinet.
“We delivered savings of £15.4 million in year and this is a permanent saving, recurring year on year. Additional income, effective use of external grant funding and a continued focus on reducing our spend has created opportunities to release one-off funding to support the increasing pressure already facing the 2024/25 revenue budget and future years.
“We have been able to set aside funds to support our forward capital programme, investing in schools, social services and climate change activities, as well as supporting projects that will transform the way we work, preparing the council for the financial challenges ahead.
“These opportunities go some way to de-risk the council’s financial position in the short term. The funding we expect to receive from Welsh Government in future years will not enable us to continue to support our residents in the same way that we do now. The council will need to make significant changes to reduce costs and address the significant gap in our budget plans. While this year’s position allows us to manage continuing pressures through the next financial year, the predicted budget deficit over the next four years is currently estimated at around £41 million.
“We must progress at pace to develop our plans to achieve a Sustainable Powys for the future. This is critical to ensure that the council can remain financially stable and provide sustainable services in the long-term.”
Schools and Social Care spent the biggest part of the council’s budget last year, equating to 68% of the overall budget. Roads, transport and recycling spent 11%.
The council provides education to 15,523 statutory school age learners through 72 primary schools, eight secondary schools, three all-age schools and three special schools.
Adult Social care is provided for 1,750 people – older adults and those with mental health issues, physical and learning disabilities within long term care facilities. The council also provides community-based care for 2,771 people to enable them to live well at home for longer and providing early help and prevention to a further 2,570 people to delay their need for more intense support.
Children’s services have 876 children’s cases open with a further 401 open to early help. 670 children have a care support plan and the council is responsible for 247 Children Looked After.
The council is responsible for road maintenance of over 5,800 kilometres (surfaced and unsurfaced) and 14,500 street lighting columns along with 9,250 kilometres of public rights of way and 1.1 million residual waste collections and 3.5 million recycling collections of over 55,000 tonnes in total across all collection streams, and a provisional recycling rate for Powys of 68.5% for 2023-24.
