There’s been a couple of meetings this week. We’ve had the formal posting of the Draft Budget at the Public Executive. That was followed by the first meeting of scrutiny committee in relation to this year’s budget.
Normally, the scrutiny committee would have begun looking at this much, much earlier. They’d have looked at options and they’d have looked at the longer term context. Personally, I regret the omission of that earlier work. Scrutiny would have added to the case being made to government. We are where we are and I’ll leave that particular issue at that.
The Executive meeting was rather long, but the draft budget was formally adopted. This means we’ve set a balanced budget only on the basis of a £20m facility to borrow, that can only be granted by government in the form of Exceptional Financial Support(EFS).
It’s now down to the government whether to grant EFS in the form we’ve proposed (a loan) or in some other way. There’s an intense dialogue ongoing with Government and lobbying alongside our MPs. That won’t let up, but the government is moving from consultation to finalising the settlement and tabling the regulatory instruments.
I have no idea what to expect from Government and there is nothing to be gained by speculating at this late stage.
Let’s hope that there’s a route that puts us on a sustainable financial footing.
I did receive responses to the questions set out in the 5th piece. My verdict on the budget for children’s services being tight was conceded. We’re at a place where all the budget lines are tight. I think we just wait for the settlement now. All options are possible, worse, same and getting better. Fingers crossed.
Photo by Suki Lee: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-hourglass-14826119/
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