Issue - meetings

This report presents the Cabinet's revenue and capital budgets for the 2016/17 financial year together with a proposal for a Council Tax level for 2016/17.

The Council considered a report presenting the Cabinet’s revenue and capital budgets for the 2016/17 financial year together with a proposal for a Council Tax level for 2016/17.

In addition to the report circulated with the agenda, all Councillors also received;

·  Appendix 7: Resolution for setting Council Tax for 2016/17

·  Updated recommendations and changes to budget report figures to reflect the provision in the Final Settlement for local government of Transitional Grant funding for the Council

·  Draft minutes of the Resources Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 8^th February with the Panel’s comments on the budget proposals.

On a motion from Councillor Tim Warren, seconded by Councillor Dine Romero, it was RESOLVED that the Council suspends Council rule 42, Content and Length of Speeches, for the duration of this debate so as to enable variations to be permitted to the length of speeches by the Cabinet Member for Finance & Efficiency, the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green Group Leaders and Independent & Village Voice Spokesperson and the Chair of the Resources Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel.

On a motion from Councillor Charles Gerrish, seconded by Councillor Tim Warren, it was

RESOLVED that

1.  That the Council approve:

a.  The General Fund net revenue budget for 2016/17 of £115.729m and the associated Council Tax increase of 1.25% plus a further 2% for Adult Social Care, as set out in Appendix 2.

b.  That no Special Expenses be charged other than Town and Parish Council precepts for 2016/17.

c.  The adequacy of reserves at Appendix 2 Table 10 with a risk-assessed level of £10.5m.

d.  The individual service cash limits for 2016/17 summarised at Appendix 2 Table 6 and detailed in Annex 1.

e.  The allocations of the Transitional grant of £936k in 2016/17 as follows:

(i)  Adjustments to Existing Budget Proposals

Ø  £25K - Widening of Gull Strategy trial and additional enforcement work.

Ø  £62K – Increase transition support for Freight Consolidation from 6 to 12 months.

(ii) New Provision

Ø  £50K – Support and advice for B&NES Council financial planning and a submission to government - to inform planned changes to local government finance nationally, including a new system of needs assessment and tariffs, which will be offsetting business rates retention proposals.

 (iii) Service Transition Support

Ø  £799K – Corporately held transition funding to assist in the delivery of savings targets and other pressures as required in year and as a contingency relating to income growth targets in 2016/17.

f.  That the specific arrangements for the governance and release of reserves, including invest to save proposals and transition funding, be delegated to the Council’s Section 151 Officer in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance & Efficiency and the Chief Executive.

2.  That the Council include in its Council Tax setting, the precepts set and approved by other bodies including the local precepts of Town Councils, Parish Councils and the Charter Trustees of the City of Bath, and those of the Fire and Police Authorities.

3.  That the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 89

This report presents the Cabinet's revenue and capital budgets for the 2016/17 financial year together with a proposal for a Council Tax level for 2016/17.

Councillor Dine Romero said that the Cabinet should be mindful of Council’s ability to generate more income taking into consideration that people have less money.  Councillor Romero expressed her concern in risks, in particular that we, as a Council, would have to pay more at later stages.  Councillor Romero also expressed her concerns in efficiency savings in Connecting Families programme and in remodelling of the Public Mental Health, especially since many young children had suffered from mental health issues.  Councillor Romero also questioned if the £1m spent on Schools Capital Maintenance had come straight from the Department of Education.

Councillor Andrew Furse expressed his concern in the risk on delivery by saying that proposed budget had had ambitious saving targets without much detail on what those savings were.  Councillor Furse also said that the Council had received £1.8m of Transitional Funding over two years, which was much less than some other authorities in the country received.  Also, as per Councillor Furse, it would be a big challenge in delivering service with so many redundancies expected to happen in near future.  Councillor Furse concluded his statement by expressing his concern in reduction of recycling centres opening hours and also in Highways Maintenance budget cut.

Councillor Robin Moss questioned how much of the Central Government grant the Council get would over four years.  Councillor Moss also questioned issue of planning department fees and concluded that despite of an effort that officers had put in this report, there was no enough detail for him to vote on.

Councillor Joe Rayment expressed his concerns in cuts within drug and alcohol services, sexual health and health improvement programme.

Councillor Lisa Brett commented that schools would face 4.4% increase in their pay bill, which would be huge blow to their budgets.  Councillor Brett questioned how the Cabinet would respond to cuts in schools; whether it was responsible to protect school improvement services on the expense of other Council services; and, what had been done to include the Education Minister in a review of Council’s statutory obligation to schools.

Councillor Eleanor Jackson expressed her concerns in cuts on Public Health and also in wasting resources in projects that had not been done right at first time.

Councillor Charles Gerrish said that the Council had received the final figures from the Central Government, and that they were unchanged from what was originally envisaged, though the Council would still have to make some significant savings.  The Transitional Funding allocated to this Council had been on par with other neighbouring authorities and similar Councils, which indicated that a visit from the Leader of the Council and Councillor Gerrish to the relevant Minister in January this year had been successful. 

Councillor Charles Gerrish highlighted these Key Priorities within the budget:

·  Tackling waste and increasing efficiency

·  Improving transport

·  Delivering new homes and jobs

·  Investing in young people

·  Supporting cleaner, greener and healthier communities

·  Promoting choice and independence for older people.

Councillor Charles Gerrish also said that the Final Settlement for local government  ...  view the full minutes text for item 89

The budget papers are attached in the following order:

·  Budget Report

·  Appendices (listed on the front of the report)

·  Summary of comments from PDS Panels

·  Budget Forum feedback

The Panel are invited to consider the reports and the feedback on the budget and to highlight any issue it would like the Cabinet to be aware of. The Panel may want to formulate some recommendations for the Cabinet but needs to recognise that such recommendations should be financially neutral as the Council has a requirement for a balanced budget.

Tim Richens, Divisional Director for Business Support, introduced the report.

Panel members considered the budget report along with comments from the Policy Development and Scrutiny Panels made in the November meetings on the Directorate Plans and notes on public consultation (Budget Fair) meetings.

The Cabinet Member for Efficiency and Resources, Councillor Charles Gerrish introduced the budget.

Panel members asked the following questions and made the following points:

Responding to a question from Councillor Furse (page 26) regarding ‘ring fenced’ money for Adult Social Care (ASC), the officer explained that funding from this element of any Council Tax increase – sometimes referred to as the ‘social care precept’ - must be used on ASC and that there have been very careful calculations on this.

Regarding a question from Councillor Goodman (page 29), the officer explained that Bath Western Riverside & Enterprise Area needed funding to enable the Council to carry out its role in project delivery and land assembly for the next phases.

In response to a query from Councillor Barrett (page 28), the Strategic Director for Place Louise Fradd explained that the current Waste contract is due to end in 2017 and a re-procurement process will commence soon. She further explained that the recent pay settlement is between Keir and their staff.

Councillor Barrett asked about the budget allocation for the B&NES Mayoral referendum (page 29) and Mayor’s budget should that be the outcome. The Cabinet Member explained that if a Mayor is elected as a result of the referendum outcome, the Mayor would need to operate within the current budget in this financial year.

Councillor Pearce asked what provisions are in place to monitor progress on the budget. The Strategic Director for Resources, Andrew Pate explained that there are a range of checks in place including internal management processes and regular monitoring reports to Cabinet. The Cabinet Member explained that he reviews performance against budget with his senior officers, he does take into account that a budget is over a 12 month period and there will be peaks and troughs. He confirmed that there is also a quarterly report to Cabinet on this.

Councillor Robin Moss (in attendance at the Panel meeting) stated that he felt that this had been his first opportunity to comment on the budget proposals as the information from other Panel’s and budget fairs is now outdated. He stated that elements of this budget are relying on economic growth and ‘spending to save’, there is recognition in the papers that the devolution deal may be impacted by economic growth, or lack of, so the risk element is substantial. The Cabinet Member responded that devolution is still a fluid picture and other than the consultancy costs of modelling and developing a deal, it is not reflected in the 2016/17 budget, being not expected to commence before the following year 2017/18. 

Councillor Dando asked if the authority intends to get a four year firm settlement from Government and the Cabinet Member explained that he does not have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55