At a joint meeting of all Powys County Council’s scrutiny committees on Thursday, July 3, councillors went through the strategic risk register in some depth.
One of the risks on the list is concerned about the budget and that the: “council is unable to deliver a financially sustainable budget over the short and medium term, then the council will not be financially resilient.”
Director of corporate services and s151 officer Jane Thomas “owns” this risk.
Ms Thomas said: “A five-year plan will really help longer-term planning.
“In terms of monitoring the delivery, we do that through routine budget reports and savings are monitored through that on a quarterly basis and through performance meetings with heads of service.”
Chairman of the Learning and Skills scrutiny committee, Councillor Gwynfor Thomas (Conservative) who chaired the joint committee meeting asked, ‘how sensitive” the council’s medium term financial plan (budget) is to “external factors.”
Cllr Thomas said: “How much do external matters effect our budget?”
During the last five years the council’s finances have been buffeted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis causing high interest rates and energy prices, and now the President Trump’s economic policies such as tariff’s and how the effect the UK economy is another factor the council has to cope with.
Portfolio holder for Finance, Councillor David Thomas (Labour) said: “We have economic advisers and can build forecasts into projections for inflation, interest rates etc.
“But the situation is so volatile.
“I wish I could get into Donald Trump’s mind, perhaps we might be able to get some more accurate predictions and projections.”
Opposition councillors asked for clarity last month over the figure for savings and cuts the council needs to make over the next five years.
Financial reports this year have thrown up figures that vary by over £20 million.
Cllr Thomas said: “Unfortunately things do change very quickly, and this is why you see some of the final figures in the medium-term financial plan changing on a regular basis.”
Ms Thomas added: “External factors have such a significant impact on the funding we receive as well as the costs for the authority.”
“We do work collaboratively across Wales with the WLGA (Welsh Local Government Association) with Wales Fiscal Analysis supporting them.”
She added that this group monitors all the economic and fiscal decisions made by the UK Government so that they “understand the impact” across all local authorities in Wales.
Ms Thomas said: “We feed that back to the Welsh Government so that they are clear of the challenges we all face.
“We do an awful lot in that sphere to make sure we are heard, and it’s considered.”
The councillors noted the report which will go on to be discussed at a Cabinet meeting later this month.
