The Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) brings together all known factors affecting the council’s financial position and its financial sustainability into one place.
The MTFS is a five-year strategy (2022–27) and one of the key strategies of the council, which sets out the council’s commitment to provide services that meet the needs of people locally and that represent good value for money.
The strategic context for the Medium-Term Financial Strategy is set out within the Council Plan. Wirral’s Council Plan can only be delivered through a sound understanding of the council’s medium and longer-term financial sustainability, which enables decisions to be made that balance the resource implications of the council’s policies against financial constraints, while delivering best value for Council Taxpayers.
A key part of the MTFS is to highlight the budget challenges that will need to be addressed by the council over the coming financial years.
This is achieved by forecasting the level of available resources from all sources and budget pressures relating to both capital and revenue spending.
It assesses what reserves and provisions need to be held for past and unknown events which may impact on the council’s resources. The associated Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP) is a summary document of the revenue budget incorporating the deliverables of the strategies by Directorate, the amount of funding available; including financial pressures and savings.