Agenda and draft minutes

To note any apologies for absence and substitutions.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Haili.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED: That all items be taken in public as proposed.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 30 October 2023.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 30 October 2023 are agreed as a correct record of proceedings.

Councillor Donnelly introduced the Budget Strategy. The Committee heard that there had been a continuing trend of shrinking budgets and increasing demand for services. There had also been short term shocks around inflation, the cost of living crisis and market failure in certain sectors. In light of this it was prudent for the Council to continue adding to its reserves to help weather any future shocks.

Emily Hill, Strategic Director of Resources and Kevin Kilburn, Assistant Director for Strategic Finance, presented the detail of the budget to the Committee.

It was noted that the Council had faced significant challenges over the past decade including a reduction in government funding by £67 million, a shift in funding from general funding to funding ringfenced to social care, an increase in demand for services including a 22% increase in older people and a general population increase of 8.5%. Despite these challenges the budget had been balanced over this period but this was becoming increasingly more difficult.

In the previous years increased demand in adults and children’s social care had led to budget pressures. Over the past year there had been the additional and significant pressure on the Council’s budget from an increase in homelessness due to the cost of living, market failure in the private rented sector and central government policy on housing asylum seekers; and children and adults social care due to demographic changes and an increased demand for services.

To cover these cost pressures it was proposed to increase Council Tax and the Social Care Precept by the combined maximum 4.99%. To address these cost pressures a review of corporate budgets had made a saving of £1.1 million which included income through the investment of funds that had been borrowed for capital projects at a lower interest rate. Additional funding had been announced by the government for social care. But the amount and how this would be funded in future years was not clear and therefore would be treated as one off funding. It was expected that another one off source of funding one off funding would be a one off redistribution of the business rates account from central government.

Over the medium term, the Medium Term Financial Strategy made the assumption that funding would be approximately the same in future years as for 2024/25.

The council had reserves of £134 million, however all but £20.8 million of these were ringfenced. It was proposed to add a further £3.5 million to reserves to improve financial resilience. To provide context, there was an overspend of £22 million this year and it was dealt with through a windfall, but this may not be available in future years.

Following the presentation, the Committee asked the following questions:

·       How confident were officers that all Council Tax would be collected, due to the cost of living crisis?

·       The majority of savings planned were in the Housing and Environment Directorate. What were these savings?

·       How certain could we be of long term projections in the budget?

·       How  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

RESOLVED: That

1.     The Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme is agreed.

2.     The responses to recommendations from the 2022-23 panels are noted.