The Leader of the Council and his Cabinet published their proposals for their first budget in December 2019. At that time, there was considerable uncertainty about the national and local financial position.

The consultation period has now ended and we have received our Funding Settlement from the Government. Together with a projected underspend on our budget for the current year, we are in a position to fund initiatives that both improve our partnership working and which will have longer-term benefits for our whole community.

The Cabinet’s response to the consultation is published below, together with the other documents which the Cabinet will be presenting to Council during February 2021 as we move towards setting the budget for 2021/2022.