The Financial Plan takes a medium-term view of the council’s finances. A new plan is prepared every three years, and it is reviewed and updated every year.
The latest plan covers the period from April 2005 to March 2008, and embodies the service and organisational priorities of the draft Corporate Plan for the same period. The two documents are the council’s response to Vision for Leeds 2004-20. This Financial Plan specifically identifies support for the following key areas –
- educational attainment;
- independent living for vulnerable adults;
- housing decency standards;
- community safety across the city;
- the environment;
- customer services;
- regeneration.
The Financial Plan is one of a suite of specifically financial council publications including the Annual Financial Plan, the Capital Programme and the Statement of Accounts.
One of the major constraints on our next Financial Plan is the government's Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 (CSR07). The Review finally appeared last October, and we are now working on how we can reconcile local priorities with the very challenging national restrictions to achieve a balanced Financial Plan for 2008-11.