Cheshire East Council’s four-year plan

Cheshire East Council is set to discuss its positive financial position as part of its four-year plan at a meeting of its finance sub-committee on 6th July 2022.

The financial outturn – which shows the council’s financial performance and closing balances for the end of the financial year – was calculated by looking at how much money was spent and received between 1st April 2021 and 31st March 2022.

It reflects the council’s four-year plan and the pressures and challenges faced by the council due to increased service demand, particularly for adults and children’s social care, and unplanned staffing vacancies.

Despite these challenges, the council has managed its finances carefully to avoid an overspend as well as adding £1.1m to manage risks via its general reserves as it continues to deliver essential services and the ambitions set out in its corporate plan.

Councillor Amanda Stott, chair of the finance sub-committee, said: “Our financial strategy is in place to create a level of certainty locally. It is very difficult to deliver a balanced budget for a council of this size, especially with challenges such as the continued impact from Covid, an absence of national certainty and more recently, national staff shortages in sectors such as social care and planning. Last year’s outturn is positive news, but as we monitor the performance this year, we are now seeing the increasing risks that inflation and the cost of living brings to our budget and ongoing project costs.  

“We recognise this is a worrying time for many of our residents and in April 2022 we implemented an enhanced council tax support offer in light of the cost of living increases, using grant money appropriately to do this.  

“While we are managing a sustainable financial plan, our medium-term financial strategy (MTFS) shows that we have significant continued pressures and challenges ahead, particularly in relation to social care and health funding.

“We have a responsibility to be financially prudent. Considering the challenges we have had in the year, the fact that our overall end of year balance is within 0.4 per cent of the revised £297.4m budget is remarkable.

“While we have not been able to complete all the projects we planned at the start of the year because of unplanned vacancies and additional responsibilities or uncertainties, we have not reduced our ambition. We will continue to review what is feasible and when programmes can proceed. It is positive that we are in this financial position again.

“The outturn result within 0.4 per cent of the budget spend, shows that we have introduced improved financial controls.

“We developed our financial strategy to address growth in demand for care services in particular, as these were overspending in 2021/22. We will carefully review the implications of the final outturn figures to ensure spending is being managed under our current plans. The financial challenges ahead mean we must continue to be careful, particularly as we wait for more detail from the government’s funding plans.”

The council will consider the ongoing impact of inflation and review current spending against the current year budget (2022/23) and update proposals in the MTFS which sets out the council’s planned income and expenditure over the next four years. This includes proposals for investment, savings and efficiencies, the level of council tax payable by residents, grants and other income.

The outturn report can be seen as part of the agenda items for the sub finance committee meeting on 6 July 2022. It can be found here:

council’s website under 'council and democracy’ then selecting ‘council meetings’ then ‘finance sub-committee’.