Key priority five: Taking care of your money
We will always strive to deliver high quality services that meet your needs as efficiently as possible.
We will continue to look for ways in which we can capitalise on innovation or new technology to improve customer experience and make your money go further.
We will take a commercial and prudent approach to managing our budgets and investments to ensure we remain financially stable and resilient and to secure the long-term financial sustainability of our funding and budgets.
What we will do over the next three years
Our aims
Ensuring we balance our budgets and work towards becoming a financially sustainable council is essential to the delivery of this priority.
We will also make sure that the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) we collect from new developments in Cheltenham, which is ringfenced by national legislation for infrastructure, is spent wisely on both local neighbourhood schemes and broader strategic schemes.
We recognise, too, that the prospect of local government reorganisation means we must take account of this in some of our decision-making.
Our actions
- By the end of year 1 of this plan we will complete the sale of the Municipal Offices and our share of Gloucestershire Airport, generating capital receipts for investment in service delivery.
- Over the course of this plan, we will reduce the budget gap year-on-year over the medium-term financial strategy period.
- By the end of this plan, we will relocate to alternative accommodation, which improves services for residents and is more efficient to run.
- By the end of this plan, we will rebuild the Housing Revenue Account balance back to the target of £1.5m.
- We will continue to work with our partners Gloucester and Tewkesbury, through the Community Infrastructure Levy Joint Committee, to ensure funding is appropriately allocated to both neighbourhood and strategic schemes. We will also oversee the schemes and be responsible for appropriate monitoring and governance of the funding awarded.
- We will engage with all our Gloucestershire partners on progressing the aim of moving to a new operational depot site to deliver waste and recycling and other environmental services.
Supporting key performance indicators
- Annual level of general balances
- Percentage savings achieved against agreed budget
- Business rates collection rate
- Council tax collection rate
- Rent and service charge collection rates
- Operating margin of the Housing Revenue Account
- Number of initiatives supported by the Community Infrastructure Levy