On Tuesday 19 September, West Devon Borough Council's Hub Committee heard that the Council's finances are in a good position moving ahead to the future.
The Council has published its draft accounts for 2022/23 which show there was a small surplus of £79,000 (1%) against a net budget of £7.770m for 2022/23.
The Hub Committee also heard how the Council is within 27% of Councils nationally who have also had their previous year's accounts for 2021/22 signed off by the external auditor. The accounts are essential to show how public funds are used to deliver Council services.
In 2022/23, the Council faced additional costs and a shortfall of income of £1.2m. Many of these costs were a result of the current economic climate with high inflation and the cost of living crisis. The extra costs came from inflation pressures, utilities, IT, the cost of insurance, the local government pay award and a shortfall in planning income.
These extra costs and shortfall in income were balanced by the Council generating additional investment income. This extra income of £0.6m came from the careful planning and management of the Council's cash funds, taking advantage of high interest rates. The Council also achieved salary savings and generated additional income from trade waste and garden waste, as well as a reduction in homelessness prevention costs. These totalled £0.7m.
Over the past year, the Council developed an effective cost of living action plan, working alongside partners to publish weekly newspaper articles. These articles signposted support on a range of different topics. They also launched a scheme providing electric blankets and slow cookers to residents like slow cookers and electric blankets to help residents save money and reduce their costs for a longer period of time.
Acting quickly, the Council processed £2.8m of Council Tax Energy Support payments of £150 to 18,912 households in the Borough. As well as helping 187 guests who have fled the war in Ukraine who have arrived in the Borough as part of the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.
Last year, the Borough was awarded a share of £1m of UK Shared Prosperity Funding. This funding will help to deliver of a range of projects to encourage sustainable residents' work and leisure travel. The funding will also be used to support businesses with advice on how to reduce their carbon emissions. This is one of the Council's climate change objectives to reduce carbon across the Borough by 2050.
Along with a range of savings schemes and grants to reduce costs, the Council has been able to tighten its belt to make efficiencies over the past year.
Cllr Chris Edmonds, West Devon Borough Council's Lead Member for Resources, said: "It's important that as a council we carefully manage the financial resilience of the Council. Our budget strategy has helped us with both our response to the Covid pandemic and the current cost of living crisis. It is important that we do everything we can to support the residents of the Borough, while still keeping a careful watch on the Council's finances. The key to the authority's financial resilience is our reserves, which I'm pleased to say, are at a sensible level.
"As a small rural authority in Devon which covers a vast area including a large part of Dartmoor, it costs us more than an urban council to deliver our core services to everyone across the Borough, especially for recycling and waste services. As a borough council, we charge £254 per year for our annual services. We feel we give good value for money for the services we provide.
The largest part of the Council Tax bill, £1,634 per annum goes to Devon County Council to deliver their services, which include highways, children's services and adult social care. In addition, £262 goes to the Police, £97 goes to the Fire Authority with the remaining average of £100 per year going to local town and parish councils to provide local services. The overall bill is mainly influenced by our Devon partners' decisions, when they set their own share of the Council Tax bill.
We have finished the financial year in a good financial position which will stand us in good stead for the future."
To read the full report, go to: www.westdevon.gov.uk/Hub
You can also watch the meeting live on our YouTube Channel.