‘How ambitious should we be?' Someone asked at a workshop session we had recently on our council business plan 2026-27. It was a good question since my scene-setting intro had outlined the context of uncertainty in which we are planning our priorities for the financial year ahead.
We have a draft consultation budget and four-year medium-term financial strategy, but there is a huge gap between our best and worst-case scenarios dependant on fair funding and the local government finance settlement, still-awaited at the time of writing. We are in no overall control and have elections in May, the outcomes of which are difficult to predict. And of course we have reorganisation.
