Pinning the tail on the donkey

This week I‘ve been working with finance colleagues on the draft budget report for next year.  As you might imagine this has been a more challenging task than in previous years, given the significant changes that have taken place during the year and the lateness of indications of financial support from the Governments.  Thanks to Ben Smith and Sarah Willis we’ve made rapid progress and the programme for the future will be presented for councillor approval over the coming weeks.

The Sustainable Swansea – fit for the future programme approved in 2013 helped steer budget prioritisation and medium term financial planning, using commissioning reviews of services to help our transformation and improvement efforts. It’s been successful in steering us through tough financial challenges whilst protecting and maintaining services, but it had run its course.  And bearing in mind the deep impact of the pandemic a new approach was required.   

So in October 2020 Cabinet approved the new “From Recovery to Transformation” report detailing the “Swansea – Achieving Better Together, Transformation Strategy & Programme Framework 2022 – 2026”.  This will now inform and shape the budget process and accelerate transformation.

The small matters of Brexit, Covid-19 and the cancellation of detailed spending reviews by the UK Government are out of our control but have a huge impact on us.  Plus the Welsh Government didn’t announce the settlement until December 22 with the final figures expected on 2 March which makes the budget process extremely challenging, compressed and uncertain. Equally, however, the now known broad funding increase for local government for 2021/22 is clearly helpful, although the information contained within the settlement makes it clear that the funding available for COVID-19 pressures is much reduced in 2021/22 and this will be a significant risk.         

So for the short term we’re clear and can plan our services with a degree of confidence.  But the longer-term outlook is grim with inevitable impacts on public spending in the light of a severely damaged UK economy.  We’ll need to see what results from the UK-wide budget and Comprehensive Spending Review in 2021 before we know the true extent of the challenge but in my view it is unlikely to be good news for local councils.

Despite this gloom the governments need to be reminded of the vital role councils play in supporting communities.  This has been brought onto centre stage during the pandemic, and my blog of May 8 2020 detailed how rapidly and effectively we responded to the crisis.  I’ll be reminding Welsh Government of this reality at every opportunity I get. The coming weeks are going to be very tough.  The predictions of scientists are deeply worrying given our already stretched health and social care services and the challenges of the variant to the virus are not yet fully known.  Both the Pfizer-BioNtech and AstraZeneca vaccines are being rolled-out in the city and across the UK and this remains the focus of our effort and our hope for the future.

In the meantime, we must continue to observe the hygiene and social distancing measures required of us to help to stem the tide.  Thanks for all your work and support for the people of Swansea.  Stay safe and stay well.

Sad news

Our Outdoor Leisure team has lost a respected colleague. Recreation Ground parking attendant Chris Evans passed away on December 25 at the age of 66. Chris had been with us in a number of roles since around 2003 and, whilst undergoing treatment, worked bravely up to the first lockdown. My thoughts are with his sister Judith and family, and workmates who supported him through the pandemic.