Issue - meetings

Verbal Q&A

The Committee undertook a Q&A Session with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Local Investment. The following arose as part of this session:

a)    The Committee queried about plans in managing progress with the Haringey deal, participatory budgeting and enabling residents to have a say over their priorities.  In response the Cabinet member advised that the Council had been in austerity since 2010 and there are parameters that would be set by the officers. The team would have to stay focused on the priorities and commit to the manifesto commitments. This would be delivered for the residents and would have to be deliver within budgets.

b)    In response to a follow-up question, the Cabinet Member advised that in terms of participatory budgeting, residents don’t have a say in how the money is spent but officers are working on improving ways to involve residents in having an input with the way council spends money.  Officers are encouraged to engage with residents around certain pots of money.  However, it was commented that very few residents understand local authority finance and were not aware, for example, that the council spent 43-44% of its overall revenue budget on Adult Social Care and two-thirds of the budget on Adult’s and Children’s services.

c)    The Committee sought clarification on whether there would need to be cuts due to the overspend, as this issue had been raised by residents. The committee was advised that it would not be necessary to be cutting services, but instead looking at ways at running services in a different way. Officers had also been tasked to do this over the last two weeks. Ideas had been put forward from offices across different directorates about how things could be done better and in a more cost-effective way.

d)    In terms of scrutiny and ensuring savings are made, the Cabinet Member advised they would be looking carefully at the savings proposals.

e)    The committee asked for further information about costs around agency staffing. In response, the Cabinet Member acknowledged that temporary staffing costs were a concern and that the administration was looking at ways to bring this spend down. It had been difficult to recruit staff post Brexit in full time permanent positions.

f)     The Committee heard that at the time of budget setting, robust advice had been sought from external advisors and that nobody had foreseen the extent which interest rates would rise.

RESOLVED

Noted