Joint statement on budget

Dear colleagues,

Following the announcement yesterday of Welsh Government’s proposed budget for 2024/25 we have now received confirmation of our provisional funding settlement for next year.

The Council is projected to receive £208.901m in funding from Welsh Government in 2024/25. This is an increase of 3.1%. However, one that is still below the current rate of inflation, so is in effect a real-terms cut.

As well as receiving funding directly from Welsh Government, the Council also raises money through Council Tax and receives additional funding through a proportion of business rates collected across Wales. While the level of Council Tax for next year is still to be decided by Councillors our current forecast is that with the settlement announced today there will be a £9.4m gap in our budget for next year.

A cut in any circumstances would be difficult to deal with but when demand for some of our most critical services is rising very quickly it puts us in a very, very challenging financial position.

While obviously not what we wanted, this announcement today is one that we have been preparing for throughout the year. A huge amount of work has been undertaken in recent months and now that the provisional settlement for next year has been announced we will be able to publish our own proposals to set a balanced 2024/25 budget for the Vale in January.

All Directorates have been working on savings proposals during the autumn and early winter. If you’d like to know more about the work to date on next year’s budget then you can watch the Learning Café session with Rob, Tom Bowring and Matt Bowmer from last week.

Our absolute priority will always be maintaining the services relied upon by our most vulnerable residents. We must ensure that children and young people, those with additional needs, and older people continue to receive the care and support that they need but this does not mean that change is not required across the Council.

We want to be very clear with colleagues today that despite the financial challenges that we face, the Vale of Glamorgan Council has not lost its ambition. We have a strong track record of finding new and innovative ways to deliver our services and we must now find new ways to continue to help our communities.

Yesterday, SLT met to discuss the next phase of our Reshaping programme. Together we considered five themes that will drive the next phase of our transformation and shape the organisation we will be by 2030.

 

• A new target operating model - how our people and processes can work differently and  in new ways and cut our waste wherever possible

• Service transformation – how we can change specific services quickly to make them viable for the coming years

• Strengthening Communities - how we can work alongside people in the community to provide our services more effectively

• Digital - how we can make better use of technology to provide our services more efficiently and at a lower cost

• Economic Resilience – how do we drive growth in the Vale at the same time by creating more and better jobs

 

The detail on this new approach will be considered by Cabinet during the budget setting process early next year.

In the meantime, we must do everything that we can to save money and put the Council and ourselves in the strongest possible position to go into the next financial year. There should continue to be no non-essential spending across the organisation. SLT will continue to take decisions to find the most cost-effective ways of working wherever possible.

Colleagues will see some visible changes early in the new year as our programme of work to rationalise our office accommodation – Eich Lle - progresses. Contact One Vale, currently located at the Contact Centre adjacent to Barry Leisure Centre, will soon relocate to the second floor of the Civic Offices. A number of teams already in the Civic have and will continue to be moving rooms to help free up space for their colleagues.

We are also now considering options for the Dock Office building. In the long term we want this building to be central to the ongoing regeneration of Barry Waterfront and the wider town.  The recent announcement of the Levelling Up funding for Barry may bring some opportunities for this. In the short-term, it is planned that colleagues in Social Services and Place will move into some of our other existing buildings to help reduce running costs.

All other significant savings proposals for next year will be set out in the draft budget proposals that will be considered by Cabinet in January. A consultation period will then follow before final proposals are considered and council tax set at a meeting of full council in March.

We know the scale of the budget gap will be concerning for many staff and that 20 December is far from the ideal day to be writing to colleagues about it. We also believe in being open, honest and wanting to share with you the very serious financial position and the wide-ranging work that we have been doing to help mitigate this situation where we can. The Council’s new wellbeing support service is available to colleagues all year round and we will be providing regular updates in the new year as this work progresses.

We would like today to assure all staff that we have a vision for this Council that sees a stronger and more effective local authority come out of these tough times. It was said earlier this week that there has never been a more important time to be in public service. This is undoubtedly true.

Thank you to all of you for your ongoing efforts and in advance for delivering on what will be required in the months and years ahead.

 

Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Rob Thomas
Cllr Lis Burnett