Agenda item

To consider the report of the Director of Corporate Resources in respect of Medium Term Financial Planning for 2013/14 - 2015/16 and to agree the Council Tax for 2013/14

Councillor Goldberg moved the budget report – Medium Term Financial Planning 2013/14 to 2015/16, and moved the recommendations contained therein. Councillor Kober seconded the MOTION.

 

Councillor Strang MOVED 5 budget amendments as set out below. Councillor  Wilson seconded the amendments to the MOTION.

 

Amendment 1 – General Fund Revenue Account

 

Protecting the most vulnerable and listening to residents

                                                                                                                                                   13/14

- ve is a saving)

 

Introduce a hardship fund, open to all residents facing

 financial stress, especially those no longer on full council

tax benefit.                                                                                       £248k

 

Reverse proposal to increase the number of events in

 Finsbury Park. The scale of proposed increase in use

of the park will disproportionately harm local communities.            £40k

 

Funded by:               

 

Capping communications budget at £1m per annum

(rather than £1.288m).                                                                  -£288k

 

Surplus/deficit                                                                              £0

 

 

 

Amendment 2 – General Fund Revenue Account

 

Protecting the environment, reducing waste and saving costs

 

Invest to increase recycling rates. At present, waste gathered        £477k

 in street bins is not separated and recycled. If all 900 street

bins were replaced with new segregated bins it is estimated

 that the savings in landfill charges would be £65k per annum

– meaning the bins would have paid for themselves within

7­-8 years in addition to carbon savings.

 

Restoring effectiveness of domestic recycling services by              £81k

providing the right type of service for the right location.

Where fortnightly collections are not working due to the

physical characteristics of the area, a more frequent

collection would be reintroduced. This allows for up to 15%

of households to have more frequent collection reinstated.

 

Accelerated low energy replacement of street lights. Current          £650k

budget assumes 46 years before all lights will be low energy.

Investing at an annual rate of £3m would replace all lights with

 low energy ones within 6 years, providing an annual saving in

power costs of £318k (plus maintenance savings, not budgeted

 for here) as well as enhancing local environment and making

 substantial carbon savings.

 

 

Funded by:

 

Enacting our existing policy on layers of management,                      -£1,433k

 whereby managers should manage at least 6 people directly.

There are currently 188 management posts (excluding site

 specific) that do not meet that standard. This would reduce

the number of management post by 25%, i.e. 47 management

posts removed through organisational redesign. It is

acknowledged that some of the manager roles targeted by this

 proposal also deliver services, and so a proportion of resource

will need to be reinvested into more front line staff.

(Assumes 6 months to implement, full savings in 14/15,

net of reinvested £600k pa)

 

Cheaper back office through shared services. This council has              0

failed to capture the opportunities many other authorities have

 taken in joint provision of back office services. The budget still

plans to spend £18.4m on IT, HR and Legal services next year.

It must be more imaginative in seeking partner (not necessarily

LAs, but other public bodies) to start capturing some savings

for Haringey's residents. This proposal targets a modest 3%

saving from IT, HR and Legal services, with a year to develop

and implement. These savings would be in addition to the

savings already assumed in the budgets for these areas.

 (Savings from 14/15)

 

Surplus/deficit ( applied to amendment 4)                              £225k surplus

 

Amendment 3– General Fund Revenue Account

 

Supporting Local Communities

 

Provide 30 minutes of free parking in our local town centres                £445k

to help them compete with out of borough retail destinations.

This will protect local jobs, and future business rates. It is

assumed that enforcement costs remain unchanged.

 

Retain the mobile library service (costs in 14/15).                           0

 

 

Funded by:

 

Reducing dependency on agency staff. Flexibility in staffing            -£396k

 is a sensible way to manage peaks and troughs in workloads,

but we believe the council is overly dependent on expensive

 agency staff in roles that should be permanently filled.

It should make efforts to get better value from its labour as well

as providing a more stable, higher quality service to its residents

through more permanent staff. It does not propose not filling any

 posts, but rather resourcing more cheaply and more certainly.

This represents a 3% reduction in current spend rates.

 

End automatic re-filling of vacancies without peer review.                   -£90k

Increase threshold for filling new posts - peer group to challenge

need for work to be done, and to explore ways of delivering the

same service level with existing staff - possibly in other

departments. Assumes 5% of vacancies do not get re-filled.

 

Surplus/deficit                                                                              £41k surplus

 

 

Amendment 4– General Fund Revenue Account

 

Foster Care

 

Investing in our capability to recruit in-house foster carers at                £170k

 

a cheaper rate (assumes no change in number of children

 being fostered). It is acknowledged that this will be a challenge

 to the department to deliver as it would be in addition to the

savings already committed to over all the years of the plan.

This proposal allows for upfront investment.

 

Funded by:

 

Enacting our existing policy on layers of management, whereby            -£225k

 managers should manage at least 6 people directly.

As described in amendment 2, using the surplus saving from

that amendment.

 

Surplus/deficit                                                                              £55k surplus

 

 

Amendment 5– Capital Spend – HRA

 

Housing the most vulnerable

 

Capital

Build 100 new council houses, funded through new capital          £1,000k

borrowing (debt repaid from HRA rental income). This would

 be a £15m programme, delivered over a number of years

subject to a detailed business case and securing cleared land

for construction.

 

Revenue

To cap rents at current council maximum, £300k pa in                  (14/15)

management cost savings will be required from the HRA (1.5%)

 once built.

 

A debate ensued and Members contributed to the discussion. 

 

Councillor Strang, and then Goldberg, responded to the proposals.

 

The amendments to the Motions were then voted on individually.

 

Budget amendment 1, on being put to the vote there were 20 in favour of the amendment and 32 against, and 1 abstention. The amendment was declared LOST.

 

Budget amendment 2, on being put to the vote there were 20 in favour of the amendment and 32 against, and 1 abstention. The amendment was declared LOST.

 

Budget amendment 3, on being put to the vote there were 21 in favour of the amendment and 31 against, and no abstentions. The amendment was declared LOST.

 

Budget amendment 4, on being put to the vote there were 20 in favour of the amendment and 33 against, and no abstentions. The amendment was declared LOST.

 

Budget amendment 5, on being put to a roll call  vote;

 

There were 21 in favour:- Councillors Alexander, Allison, Beacham, Butcher, Davies, Engert, Erskine, Gorrie, Hare, Jenks, Newton, Reece, Reid, Schmitz, Scott, Solomon, Strang, Whyte, Williams, Wilson, and Winskill.

 

There were 33 against – Councillors Adamou, Adje, Amin, Basu, Bevan Brabazon, Browne, Bull, Canver, Demirci, Diakides, Dogus, Egan, Ejiofor, Gibson, Goldberg, Griffith, Rahman-Khan, Kober, Mallett, McNamara, Meehan, Peacock, Reith, Rice, Stanton, Stennett, Stewart, Strickland, Vanier, Waters, Watson, and Weber.

 

There were no abstentions.

 

The amendment was declared LOST.

 

In respect of the substantive recommendations as MOVED by Councillor Goldberg - on a vote there being 32 for, 1 against, and 20 abstentions it was:

 

RESOLVED:

 

1.             That  the proposed budget package agreed by Cabinet on 12 February 2013 as updated and included as Appendix 6 to the report be noted;

 

2.             That approval be given to the Medium Term Financial Plan to  March 2016 as attached in Appendix 1 and cash limits 2013-14 as set out in appendix 2 of the report;

3.             That approval be given to the General Fund Budget requirement for 2013-14 of £288.1m, net of Dedicated Schools Grant, as set out in Appendix 1 of the report;

4.             That approval be given to the Capital Programme to March 2016, comprising spending and funding of £227.3m as set out in Appendix 5 to the Cabinet report of 12 February 2013 (attached as Appendix 6 to the report);

5.             That approval be given to the Housing Revenue Account Budget 2013-14 and Medium Term Financial Plan  to March 2016, as set out in Appendix 4 to the Cabinet report of 12 February 2013 (attached as Appendix 6 to the report);

6.             That approval be given to the housing rent increases (average increase of £4.19 (4.45%) per week) as set out in Appendix 4 to the Cabinet report of 12  February 2013 (attached as Appendix 6 to the report);

7.             That approval be given to the tenants’ service charges  as set out in  Appendix 4 to the Cabinet report of 12 February 2013 (attached as Appendix 6 to the report)

8.             That the Greater London Authority precept as detailed in para 6.17 of the report be noted;

9.             That the reserves policy be agreed, and that the revision to and creation of new reserves be noted as set out in appendix 3 of the report.

10.          That the estimated level of un-earmarked general fund reserves as at 31 March 2013 of £15.3 million and specific and other reserves as set out in Appendix 3 of the report be approved;

11.          That the budget scrutiny recommendations made by the Overview  and Scrutiny Committee, and the responses of the Cabinet as set   out in Appendix 6  to the Cabinet report of 12 February 2013 (attached at appendix 6 to this report) be noted;

12.          That the report of the Director of Corporate Resources under Section 25 of the Local Government Act 2003 at sections 7 and 8 on the robustness of the estimates and adequacy of proposed reserves be noted;

13.          That the Treasury Management Strategy Statement 2013-14 attached at appendix 4 of the report be agreed; and

14.          That the budget resolution in the specified format as set out in the attached appendix 5 of the report (and as set out below) and the consequent freeze in the Council’s element of council tax for 2013-14 be agreed, determining that Council’s relevant basic amount of Council Tax for the year was not excessive.

AGGREGATE OF COUNCIL TAX REQUIREMENTS INCLUDING THE GLA PRECEPT FOR 2013/14

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
£	£	£	£	£	£	£	£
991.56	1,156.81	1,322.06	1,487.32	1,817.72	2,148.37	2,478.87	2,974.65