Agenda item

Consideration was given to a report due to be determined by the Cabinet and Commissioners’ Decision Making Meeting on 19 February 2018 that proposed the Council’s Budget and Council Tax for 2018/19 based on the outcome of the Council’s Provisional Local Government Financial Settlement, budget consultation and the consideration of Directorate budget proposals alongside a review of the financial planning assumptions within the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

The report contained proposals to balance the revenue budget for 2018/19 and Members noted that work was ongoing to bring forward proposals to address the challenging financial position for future years and to enable the Council to establish a clear and sustainable financial plan which would address the estimated £30m financial gap that remained for the next two years.

In presenting the report, both the Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Finance and the Leader of the Council emphasised the scale of the challenge facing the authority and the way in which corporate savings had been targeted to protect services from the impact of the reduction in the government’s Revenue Support Grant.

Members sought clarity in respect of reductions in budgets where consistent underspends had been identified. It was explained that there were lines within budgets across the Council which had been historically underspent and that the budget for these areas could be reduced to reflect the actual level of spend to realise efficiencies. Members also queried the proposals in respect of increasing fees and charges and were advised that this would be dealt with in a separate report to be considered at the Cabinet and Commissioners’ Decision Making Meeting in March 2018.

The Board reiterated the need to include equality impact assessments for all budget savings in future. In response, it was confirmed that any budget item that was substantial or required a separate report would be accompanied by an equality impact assessment.

Members queried whether there was any additional funding that could be utilised from any adjustments from the central government financial settlement and the social care precept for adult social care. In response, it was explained that discussions would be required with the Leader of the Council and any technical amendments and decisions would be included for Cabinet’s consideration and ultimately the Council at its meeting on 28 February 2018.

Focussing on the need to improving efficiency across the Council, Members queried what work could be done to make the authority “paper free”, to reduce printing and postage costs. It was explained that this was an area of work that was being led by the Customer Services and Efficiency Board within the Finance and Customer Services directorate. Members indicated that they would support efforts to increase paperless working, particularly in respect of paperwork for committee meetings.

Recognising the quality of the consultation exercise for the waste review, Members sought to understand how lessons would be learned from this to improve the quality of consultation on the budget proposals in future years. In response, the Leader of the Council confirmed that this would be looked at in the coming year and the input of Members would be welcome, however, when the responses to the budget consultation were analysed, whilst they were small in number, the responses broadly reflected the points that had been expected.

Resolved:-

1.    That Cabinet be advised that the recommendations be supported.

2.    That equality impact assessments on budget proposals be made available to inform Council’s consideration of the Budget and Council Tax 2018/2019 at its meeting of 28 February 2018.

3.    That further consideration be given on how improvements can be made to the consultation process to ensure that public views can be taken into account in the scrutiny of the budget proposals.

4.    That further discussions be held with the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board to discuss the budget timetable to ensure early consideration of budget proposals takes place.

5.    That Overview and Scrutiny Management Board continue to have oversight of the Adult Social Care budgets.