On 10 February 2026 Cabinet:-
(i) Agreed and recommends to the City Council
for approval at its Council Tax-setting meeting:
a) The 2026/27 draft General Fund net Revenue
Budget of £1,907.535m (Section 5 and Appendix 1 refer);
b) The 2026/27 to 2028/29 programme of
proposed savings (Section 8 and Appendix 1 refer); the funding of budget
pressures (Sections 8 and Appendix 1 refer); and the funding of the recommended
areas for investment (Section 8 and Appendix 1 refer);
c) The 2026/27 Reserves and Balances Policy
(Section 9 and Appendix 2 refer);
d) The 2026/27 Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)
funding allocation for Schools (Section 12 and Appendix 5 refer); and
e) The Corporate Equality Impact Assessment
(Appendix 7 refers), as well as the Equality Impact Assessments for individual
savings proposals at https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/EqualityImpactAssessments.
(ii) Agreed to:
a) The Revenue Budget Reports for 2026/27 as
presented to the Council’s scrutiny committees, and Capital Strategy,
Investment Strategy and Treasury Management Strategy elsewhere on the agenda,
in the context of the overarching framework of this report;
b) Noted that the financial position has been
based on the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement announced on 17
December 2025 together with any further announcements to date. Note that the
Final Finance Settlement is expected the week beginning 2 February. A verbal
update will be provided to the Committee and the report to Council updated to
consider any changes;
c) Noted
that the Council Tax base of 275,434 for 2026/27 was approved by January
Cabinet and the 2026/27 Business Rates Baseline of £592.6m has been submitted
to Government as part of the NNDR1 Return;
d)
Noted the Executive Director,
Finance’s (Section 151 Officer’s) statutory review of the robustness of the
estimates and the adequacy of the reserves. This is covered in Appendix 8 of
the report;
e) Noted that there is no request for
Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) to balance the 2026/27 budget or for any
new liabilities or costs in 2026/27. The request for EFS is attached at
Appendix 11 to the report and is to confirm previous support to deliver a
balanced budget in 2024/25 and 2025/26 and meet historic equal pay liabilities
and redundancy costs. The final amount will be confirmed once all equal pay
claims are settled;
f) Approved
the proposed use of up to £50m of Capital Receipts rather than Exceptional
Financial Support to fund future transformational redundancy costs (paragraph
8.21 refers);
g) Noted the anticipated financial position
for the Council for the period of 2026/27 is based on all proposals set out in
the MTFP being agreed;
h) Agreed the budget principles set out in
paragraph 4.12 to the report which provided the framework for the preparation
of the Medium Term Financial Plan;
i) Agreed
the savings which are set out in Appendix 1 to the report and direct the
Corporate Leadership Team to progress the savings following agreement of the
City Council;
j) Noted
that the Budget Proposals in this report include the removal of specific
savings from 2025/26 totalling £8.711m (including planned savings in that
programme for 2026/27 and future years) (Section 8 refers);
k) Noted
the position of reserves set out in the Reserves and Balances Policy and agree
planned spend from reserves set out in Appendix 2 to the report;
l) Accepted
and agreed all grants and associated spend as per the Grant Register, set out
in Appendix 3 to the report;
m) Approved the schedule of fees and charges,
approving those with the delegations to Cabinet, and recommends all other fees
and charges to the City Council meeting on 24 February 2026 (Appendix 6 refers);
n) Delegated authority to the Section 151
Officer, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance, to use the
Contingency Budget for those matters which may require an urgent response,
subject to compliance with procurement rules. Any delegated decision will be
reported through the normal procedures as set out in the Constitution and
subsequent reporting via budget management reports to Cabinet;
o) Endorsed the enhanced governance and
oversight for savings and growth proposals set out in paragraphs 8.58 and 8.59 of
the report to delegate Business case sign off to the Executive Director,
Finance in consultation with the relevant Strategic Director and Cabinet
Portfolio Holder and Cabinet Member for Finance;
p) Note the Response to Budget Scrutiny Task
and Finish Group, specifically the responses outlined at Appendix 10 to the
report, and agreed to consider the recommendations in consideration of the
draft 2026/27 budget;
q) Noted that the 2026/27 Housing Revenue
Account (HRA) budget, and the Business Plan, as approved by Cabinet on 20
January 2026, will be shared with City Council, for information, on 24 February
2026; and
r) Delegated
authority to the Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Leader and
Cabinet Member for Finance, to make any amendments or corrections to the
2026/27 Draft Budget between now and submission to City Council on 24 February
2026.
THE DEADLINE FOR CALL IN IS
1600 HOURS ON MONDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2026.