Agenda item

Cabinet Portfolio: – Leader

 

Strategic Directorate: - Finance and Customer Services

Consideration was given to a report that was submitted for pre-decision scrutiny ahead of the Cabinet meeting scheduled for 14 February 2020 in respect of the Budget and Council Tax 2022/23 and Medium-Term Financial Strategy. The Leader of the Council, the Cabinet Member - Corporate Services, Community Safety and Finance - the Chief Executive, the Strategic Director – Finance and Customer Services, the Assistant Director - Financial Services and the Head of Corporate Finance attended the meeting to present the report.

 

The Assistant Chief Executive, the Acting Strategic Director – Adult Care, Housing and Public Health, the Strategic Director – Children and Young People’s Services and the Strategic Director – Regeneration and Environment, were also in attendance at the meeting.

 

The report provided information on the Council’s Budget and Council Tax for 2022/23 based on the Council’s Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2022/23, budget consultation and the consideration of Directorate budget proposals through the Council’s formal Budget process, alongside a review of the financial planning assumptions contained within the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy.

 

In setting the proposed 2022/23 budget increases of 1.5% in the Rotherham MBC element of Council Tax and of 3% in the Adult Social Care precept were being recommended. The report also detailed the proposed revenue budget for 2022/23, an updated capital programme to 2025/26 and the updated Medium-Term Financial Strategy to 2025/26.

 

The report stated that the Council had continued to face considerable challenges during 2021/22 in its response to the global pandemic, and that whilst the financial impact of COVID-19 had reduced, it had still seen a change in how the Council had been able to provide services to residents. The report noted that the Council had worked at a national, regional and local level to continue to respond to the COVID-19 emergency and that it had continued to ensure that critical services had been delivered so that the most vulnerable residents had continued to be supported. The report noted that the impact of the COVID-19 emergency had continued to create significant financial pressures for the Council due to additional expenditure, lost income and further delays to the delivery of planned savings and cost reductions. The report stated that these financial pressures were being covered in the current year by financial support grants from Government and Covid-19 funding provided.

 

The report also noted that whilst some uncertainties remained with regard to the ongoing impact of the pandemic that the Council would continue to manage these and that the Council’s priorities for future service delivery had been set out within the Council Plan 2022- 2025 and the Year Ahead Delivery Plan.

 

In introducing the report, the Leader noted the unprecedented levels of uncertainty that had surrounded the budget setting process that had included issues related to the ongoing impact of austerity measures, the impact of pandemic in relation to lost income, increased costs and challenges in relation to the delivery of services. The Leader also noted that uncertainty around the long-term impacts of the pandemic on people’s behaviour had created additional uncertainty around the budget setting process. The Leader also noted the challenges that had been created by the impact of inflation and the increase in National Insurance contributions in April 2022.

 

The Leader noted that the Council still needed to deliver £11million of the required savings that had been agreed in the 2019 budget and reaffirmed his commitment to not only safely reducing the number of children in the Council’s care, but to also reducing the cost of placements for looked after children. The Leader advised however that the most significant budget challenge that the Council faced was around the increasing costs of providing Adult Care Services, noting that the proposed budget for Adult Care Services for 2022/23 was £94million. The Leader welcomed the additional funding that had been provided by the Government to support the challenges of providing Adult Care Services but noted the ongoing challenges that would remain in the delivery of Adult Care Services that remained due to the funding not increasing in future years. The Leader advised that unfortunately due to these circumstances that the Adult Social Care element of the Council Tax was being proposed to increase by 3% in 2022/23 to bridge the gap between the available funding and the budget required to deliver services.

 

The Leader noted that for the majority of residents in the Borough that the proposed increases in the basic element of Council Tax of 1.5% and of 3% for the Adult Social Care element would mean an increase in their bills of 90p per week. The Leader advised that the proposed Budget and Council Tax for 2022/23 ensured that the Council could maintain a sustainable financial position moving forward that would enable services to be delivered and for adequate financial reserves maintained.

 

The Leader advised that despite the challenges that the Council faced he was pleased to announce that the budget contained proposals for reinvesting in services that focussed on the priorities of residents that included:

 

·       Being able to pay personal care assistants the Real Living Wage.

 

·       Maintaining the funding that had been allocated in the 2021/22 budget for:

·       the library book fund

·       Planning Enforcement

·       Youth work

·       Environmental improvements, including tree planting and wildflowers.

 

The Leader also advised that eight seasonal Streetpride operative positions would now become permanent, creating extra capacity to enable a real difference to be seen in the local environments of communities across the Borough. The Leader also noted that there would be extra funding made available to deliver improvements to road safety and for delivering more services for children with additional needs. The Leader also noted with concern the increase of Child Criminal Exploitation and how extra funding for the Youth Offending Service would create a change of focus to enable children involved in criminal exploitation to be supported, rather than being treated as someone who purely needed to be guided away from criminal activity.

 

The Leader advised that whilst the proposed budget would not undo all of the damage created by austerity since 2010, that it would enable the Council to start investing again in some of the vital services that had been subject to budget cuts in the past.

 

The Leader noted and detailed the proposed Capital Programme up to 2025/26.

 

The Leader concluded by noting that while it was regrettable that it was being proposed that Council Tax should increase, that with the proposed continuation and expansion of the Additional Council Tax Support Scheme, extra support would be made available to help those households on the lowest incomes with their cost-of-living pressures over the next two years.

 

Members noted with concern the proposed £7million cut to the Children and Young People’s Service budget and asked whether it could be guaranteed this reduction would not negatively impact on the welfare of children across the Borough. The Leader confirmed that the proposed reduction would not negatively impact on the welfare of children across the Borough noting that the proposed budget contained a cash increase of £3million for Children and Young People’s Services. The Leader reaffirmed the commitment to deliver savings across Children and Young People’s Services and the ambition to safely reduce the number of children in the Council’s care that would not only deliver budget savings but would also ensure better outcomes for children and young people. Members sought assurance that the budget for therapeutic services would be protected from any potential budget cuts. The Leader stated that he could guarantee that the budget for therapeutic services would not be reduced. The Strategic Director – Finance and Customer Services assured members that the savings that needed to be made in the Children and Young People’s Services budget would be achieved by providing the same services in a more cost-effective way and not by cutting service provision.

 

Members welcomed the proposed budget and noted their approval regarding the proposal to support the most disadvantaged and vulnerable residents across the Borough with additional support with their Council Tax. Members asked for further information on how the budget would work to support residents as they faced a cost-of-living crisis. The Leader advised that whilst it had been a difficult decision to propose an increase in Council Tax that the increase would prevent cuts to services having to be made that would disproportionally impact the poorest and most vulnerable residents. The Leader noted the financial support that was available to the poorest households provided by the Local Council Tax Support Scheme and the Additional Council Tax Support Scheme and stated that it was the right thing to do to concentrate support on those residents who were the most in need.

 

Members asked how the £150 Council Tax rebate that had been announced by the Government would be paid to the residents across the Borough who would not be paying any Council Tax as they would be entitled to support from the Additional Council Tax Support Scheme. The Leader advised that the Council had not yet been provided with the full details of the scheme and the exact requirements with regard to how it would be administered. The Leader noted that the Government Scheme was somewhat misleadingly named as eligibility was not related to how much Council Tax an individual actually paid, but rather that they lived in a property rated in Council Tax Bands A – D. The Leader assured members that whilst the scheme could be logistically difficult to deliver due to the vast majority of households in Rotherham being entitled to the payment, that he was confident of the Council’s ability to ensure everyone who was entitled received their payment.

 

Members asked how residents who lived in Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO’s), who did not receive a Council Tax bill would be able to receive the payment. The Leader advised that the payment would be made to whoever was the bill payer at a property, and that in the case of HMO’s that this would be the landlord. The Strategic Director – Finance and Customer Services advised that many questions regarding entitlement to, and the administration of the scheme had been submitted to the Government and that responses to these would be received in due course. The Strategic Director – Finance and Customer Services noted that in the addition to the main scheme that there would also be a discretionary scheme to support those in financial hardship who lived in properties in Council Tax bands E and above.

 

Members noted their thanks to all of those who had been involved in the budget preparation processes. Members again expressed their concerns regarding the cost-of-living crisis and how the proposed increase in National Insurance contributions would reduce the incomes of households across the Borough. Members also noted with concern that the proposed increase in National Insurance contributions would also not provide the additional financial support for adult care services that the Government had said the increase would do. Members welcomed the many investments that were being proposed to services that would make a positive impact on residents lives and communities.

 

Members in particular welcomed the proposal to increase the number of staff who would be available to deal with telephone enquires as members noted that it was important to residents that they could contact the Council easily when they needed to access services. The Leader noted his concern that the “social care levy” that would be collected by increased National Insurance contributions was more focussed on protecting the properties and inheritances of the wealthy and not on providing the much needed funding for adult care services. 

 

Members expressed further concern regarding the overspends in the Children and Young People’s Services budget and asked how the overspends could be managed in a way that did not undermine the proposed, as well as future budgets. Members also noted the information that been provided regarding the pressure that the high cost of some placements for looked after children and asked why Rotherham had a higher proportion of looked after children than in neighbouring authorities. The Leader noted his agreement that the number of looked after children in Rotherham was too high. The Leader advised that other areas where local Children and Young People’s services had been high performing for a sustained period of time would have had a history of being able to provide the type of interventions that were successful at keeping children out of the care system, and as such would have fewer looked after children in their areas. The Leader assured members that the number of looked after children in Rotherham would decrease in the future as the significant improvements that had been delivered across Children and Young People’s Services over recent years would have meant that the right interventions to keep children out of the care system would have been able to be delivered. The Leader advised that the budget for Children and Young People’s Services had not been increased to cover the overspends as this would have hidden the significant activity that was being carried out to reduce costs and to reduce safely the number of children in the Council’s care. The Strategic Director – Children and Young People’s Services noted that type of interventions required to keep children out of the care system could take a considerable amount of time to be seen in the number of children entering the care system.

 

Members noted the assurances that had been given regarding the Children and Young People’s Services budget and how the overspends would be brought down by reducing safely the number of children in the Council’s care. Members advised that they would continue to monitor the Children and Young People’s Services budget closely to give themselves assurance that the overspends were reducing over time.

 

Members sought further information and assurances regarding the levels of borrowing and debt and asked how Rotherham compared to other similar local authorities on this issue. The Head of Corporate Finance advised that information on how Rotherham compared to other similar local authorities could be circulated to members outside of the meeting. The Head of Corporate Finance advised that the Council’s position with regard to borrowing and debt was sustainable and that it was also comparable to other similar metropolitan authorities. The Head of Corporate Finance advised that the Council had been able to take advantage of borrowing money at very preferential rates over the long term that had enabled the Council to utilise other short-term borrowing opportunities.

 

Members noted that in the proposed budget that there was no allocated budget for the provision of additional bin storage facilities at Council properties. Members asked that as there were still properties that had not had the storage facilities installed, what plans there were to provide bin storage facilities at these properties. The Leader advised whilst the planned programme of installing bin stores had ended that any residents at properties that needed the installation or adaptation of a bin store would be able to have the required work completed.

 

Members noted the commitments that were detailed in the proposed Capital Programme around roads and road safety and asked that given these commitments why that there appeared to be no allocated budget for the forthcoming year for the potholes fund and also why the budget for roads appeared to be reducing in future years. The Leader assured members that there was a four-year roads programme that had an allocated budget of £24million. The Leader noted that due to the different types of projects included in the programme that the amount spent each year could vary, but assured members that £24million would be invested in the Borough’s roads over the full four-year period. The Head of Corporate Finance noted that the pothole fund was a government grant for which the details for 2022/23 had not yet been received. The Head of Corporate Finance advised that the allocated funding would be added to the Capital Programme as soon as confirmation from the Government on the amount of the grant had been received.

 

Members asked for further information on how the Council planned to ensure that there was sufficient funding to ensure the sustainable funding for the provision of services for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The Strategic Director – Children and Young People’s Services advised that the budget that had been allocated would enable the Council to work more closely with parents and carers so as to enable an improved and more timely approach to be taken when working with children and young people with SEND. The Strategic Director – Children and Young People’s Services advised that the Council’s SEND Sufficiency Strategy would also enable the Council to look ahead and plan for demand for SEND services across the Borough in the future. The Strategic Director – Children and Young People’s Services also noted the opening of the Newman School at Dinnington that would provide support with the social, emotional and mental health needs of children and young people as well as the close working with health partners with regard to developing the Council’s SEND provision that was taking place.  The Strategic Director – Children and Young People’s Services advised that the additional funding that had been proposed for SEND provision would ensure excellent and sustainable SEND provision for children and young people and support for their families across the Borough.

 

Members noted the Council’s commitment to decarbonisation and its commitment to net zero emissions for the Council by 2030, and for the Borough by 2040. Members asked what consideration had been given to rationalising the number of Council buildings to help support its decarbonisation ambitions. The Strategic Director – Regeneration and Environment noted that the Council had reduced the number of its operational buildings over a number of years and advised that the proposed budget aimed to address how the carbon impact of the remaining buildings could be reduced and support the Council’s Climate Change commitments. Members asked whether the Council’s office space could be reduced following the introduction of the hybrid working policy and increased numbers of staff working at home. The Chief Executive advised that the Council had very few buildings that were solely office buildings for Council use and noted that Riverside House also housed office space for many partner organisations with this type of use being expected to increase in the future. The Chief Executive advised that new hybrid ways of working would ease pressure on office space at Riverside House as pre-pandemic the available space in the building had not been quite sufficient to meet the demands at that time for office space.

 

Members noted the proposed increase in Council Tax for 2022/23 and sought assurances that residents would not be subjected to future larger Council Tax increases should the Council’s borrowing commitments and debt become unstainable in the future. The Strategic Director – Finance and Customer Services assured members that the Council’s borrowing commitments were sustainable in the long term and advised that a set of robust and strict budget setting and treasury management policies were in place that ensured the Council and residents were not exposed to the risks caused by any unsustainable borrowing commitments.

 

Members welcomed the proposed freezing of various fees and charges in areas such as market rents and town centre car parking and noted that this showed that the Borough’s residents and their needs had been listened to in the creation of the budget.

 

Members asked how they could be assured that the equalities implications of the budget proposals had been fully considered when the Equalities Impact Assessment attached to the budget report lacked specific information on how these had been considered. The Chief Executive advised that as the proposals detailed in the budget were developed, then further detailed consideration of equalities issues would be considered at an individual service level. The Chief Executive assured members that the budget had been developed with detailed consideration of how the proposals would affect those residents who would be most impacted by budget. The Chief Executive advised that the budget had been designed to protect the most vulnerable by providing extra support in areas such as additional Council Tax support and assistance with school uniforms.

 

Members noted with approval that approximately 10,500 households across the Borough would not have to pay any Council Tax in 2022/23 because of the Additional Council Tax Support Scheme but asked what support would be available for those households who just missed out on being eligible for support. The Leader advised that the Council’s Council Tax Support schemes were provided on a sliding scale that ensured support was provided to those households who required it. The Leader also noted that households could also be assisted in other ways, such as flexible payment plans and the provision of free financial advice, so that their Council Tax bills were affordable and manageable for them. The Leader advised that once further details of the funding that was being made available from the Government became available that additional discretionary support may be able to be provided for residents with their Council Tax. The Leader noted however that as some households that may be entitled to support may not claim from a discretionary scheme that it was preferable to distribute support via existing support schemes that would ensure all of those entitled to support would receive it. The Strategic Director – Finance and Customer Services noted that the Additional Council Tax Support Scheme would support approximately 14,000 households with their Council Tax bills, with approximately 10,500 households paying no Council Tax at all.

 

Members asked for further information on how the proposed budget would support members with their ward working and community leadership roles. The Leader advised that the Council would continue to provide £10,000 a year to each ward for capital projects and that the Community Leadership Fund allocation would return to £1,000 for each member to utilise after being increased for one year during 2021/22. The Leader also noted the funding that would become available via the local element of the Community Infrastructure levy to deliver locally led improvement projects.

 

Members noted with concern the low level of public response to the consultation that had been carried out regarding the proposed budget and asked how the Council could improve the response rate to consultations. The Leader noted that numerous methods of engagement regarding the budget had been tried over the years but advised that engaging residents over something, that to them was quite abstract was not always easy. The Leader advised that responses to consultations on specific proposals always attracted a higher response rate as residents could see how such proposals may impact on them, and as such found these consultations easier to engage with.

 

The Chair thanked the Leader, the Cabinet Member - Corporate Services, Community Safety and Finance - the Chief Executive, the Strategic Director – Finance and Customer Services, the Assistant Director - Financial Services, the Head of Corporate Finance, the Assistant Chief Executive and the Strategic Directors for attending the meeting and answering member questions.

 

Resolved:  -

 

That Cabinet be advised that the recommendations be supported.

 

Councillor A Carter requested that his vote against supporting the recommendations be recorded.