Medium Term Financial Strategy

The medium term financial strategy (MTFS) provides a strategic financial framework and forward looking approach to achieve long term financial sustainability.

The main objectives of the medium term financial strategy are:

  • to look to the longer term to help plan sustainable services and budgets and help ensure that the council’s financial resources are sufficient to support delivery of Corporate Strategy ambitions.
  • to provide a single document to communicate the financial context, aims and objectives to staff and stakeholders and support working with partners.

The strategy provides a framework against which the medium-term financial plan (MTFP) is developed, and provides the backdrop against which the MTFP has been developed.

The Strategy

The Medium Term Financial Strategy examines both the Financial Context and also the Strategic Context:

  • Financial Context – where we examine our sources of funding, assumptions around such items as pay and price inflation, our available balances, the development of the capital programme, key risks and out monitoring and forecasting arrangements taking into consideration the CIPFA Financial Management Code.
  • Strategic Context – where we look at the look at the ambitions contained within the Corporate Strategy and also the impact of our many other polices and plans and how these impact on the direction of the council and on its operation from day to day. Also included here is wider national policy and how certain areas of national policy do, or may, impact on the operation of the council.

The Plan

The Medium Term Financial Plan is where the council reviews its budgetary position and seeks to forecast its financial position over a rolling 5-year plan, based on the content of the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

The Plan considers the financial climate at both the local and national level together with available resources and budgetary pressures. Included here is the medium term forecast around our day-to-day revenue spend and also of our investment through capital spend.