Published Friday 5 July 2024 at 16:05
A report to next week’s Executive Board meeting of Blackburn with Darwen Council highlights how the organisation’s finances are being managed well.
The general fund revenue outturn report presents a picture of the Council’s day to day income and expenditure for 2023/24. It shows that the Council achieved a broadly break-even position despite the challenging global and national economic climate.
The Council’s outturn position is better than expected and reflects the prudent management of the Council’s budget.
The report details budget pressure in the year including, for example, in Children’s Services due to the high costs of children’s placements, which is a national issue affecting other local authorities.
In other areas of the Council, underspends are reported – for example, in Adult Social Care and Health where opportunities to maximise external funding have been taken.
But, good management of the Council’s cash and higher than expected interest rates have meant that extra investment income of £3.157m that has helped to boost the authority’s financial outturn.
And the Council also recorded an underspend of £1.201m on the cost of debt due to lower than expected temporary borrowing – in fact, the Council did not need to take any new borrowing during the year.
Councillor Vicky McGurk, Executive Member for Finance and Governance, said:
“I’m pleased that we can report a balanced outturn, and I want to pay tribute to the Finance team and, indeed, all Council Departments, for their hard work all year round in management their budgets.
“We’re also contributing money to the Council’s reserves, due to underspends during the year. Increasing our reserves by £5.8m puts us in a strong position to manage the risks of future financial challenges.
“We’ll continue to use our resources wisely, to deliver value for money services for local residents.”
Councillor Phil Riley, Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, added:
“One of our main priorities is tackling the budget challenge, to ensure that the Council is in a strong position and to ensure that the resources we have are used in the best way possible to deliver Council services, particularly to support the most vulnerable people in our local communities.
“Supported by a robust Medium Term Financial Planning framework and with a focus on proactive investment, implementing our financial strategy is indeed challenging, but by continuously improving and being forward-thinking, creative and innovative, I have confidence that we can continue to manage our finances well.”
All reports to be presented to the Executive Board on Thursday 11 July are available on the Council’s website.