Background to our 2019/20 budget update
Despite growing need and the pressures we face, we’re determined to deliver the agreed priorities for Manchester.
Our budget isn’t just about managing reducing resources – it’s also about where we should invest to deliver residents’ priorities. This includes new ways of working with partners to get in early and build on families’ strengths and self-reliance so they’re better able to improve their lives and reduce their need for more costly support in future.
We must also balance the need to invest to grow our city’s economy (and the income we get from that), with funding services that everyone needs, and targeted support for the most vulnerable.
We already had to find £9million to close a budget gap for 2019/20. This grew to £21.6million when pressures on essential priorities like homelessness and social care were added. We have closed this gap in a combination of ways including more from business rates and council tax thanks to our city’s growth, an additional £6million of savings and managing tight budgets efficiently, and one-off Government funding matched by some of our reserves.
However, this is not a sustainable way to balance our finances. It looks likely that we will face more difficult decisions in future as demands continue to grow and our resources look set to reduce.