Below is an introduction to our Financial Report for the Year 2006 to 2007 together with a link to a contents page| consisting of further links to the full document in both plain text and PDF formats.

 

Introduction

We work hard to manage our finances in a way that protects existing services and plans for additional spending pressures within a longer term financial strategy that maintains council tax increases at affordable levels and reserves above a ‘minimum’ threshold set by us. A new medium term budget strategy suggests that we have the resources available to deliver its priorities but warns against complacency and attaches great importance to the drive for efficiency savings. The strategy continues the commitment to reduce the usage of reserves to balance the our budget and assumes no contribution from reserves from 2008/09 onwards.

 

During 2006/07, we have extended the concessionary travel scheme to provide free county-wide travel, renegotiated the leisure management contract producing significant revenue savings and additional capital investment, completed the sale of the trade refuse service to better utilise staffing resources and the vehicle fleet and provided over £100,000 of capital investment to the local Community Forums.

These are just some examples of our commitment to delivering value for money through reviewing services and by working closely with residents.

 

Our General Fund produced an underspend of £306,000 (-4.1%) against the original budget. This underspend was increased further by a favourable previous year adjustment for council tax benefit amounting to £117,000. The General Fund balance at the end of the financial year remains sound at £1.5 million.

 

The Housing Revenue Account saw balances increase by £73,000. At the end of the year, a healthy balance of £572,000 remains on the account. It is pleasing to

note that we continue to maintain the standards of our council housing at a time when many authorities are forced into transferring their stock as a matter of financial necessity.

 

In 2006/07, we received a grant of £291,000 from the Local Authorities Business Growth Incentive Scheme. This is a significant sum for a Council the size of Oadby and Wigston Borough Council. This grant has been set aside in a Special Projects Reserve to be used to progress our priorities in 2007/08 and future years.

 

Our cautious approach to spending continues to pay dividends in terms of our overall financial strength. This is no mean achievement for a Council, which because of its size, lacks the resources to cope easily with non-stop additional demands through legislative changes and new responsibilities. During the next few years we will continue to respond to these challenges, working with our partners to

achieve the best results for our residents.

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