Agenda and minutes

Please note that this meeting may be filmed or recorded by the Council for live or subsequent broadcast via the Council’s internet site or by anyone attending the meeting using any communication method. Although we ask members of the public recording, filming or reporting on the meeting not to include the public seating areas, members of the public attending the meeting should be aware that we cannot guarantee that they will not be filmed or recorded by others attending the meeting. Members of the public participating in the meeting (e.g. making deputations, asking questions, making oral protests) should be aware that they are likely to be filmed, recorded or reported on. 

By entering the meeting room and using the public seating area, you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings.

The chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any individual or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

The Chair referred Members present to agenda Item 1 as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at this meeting, and Members noted the information contained therein’.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Hymas. Apologies for lateness were received from Cllr Moyeed.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business (late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with as noted below).

There were no items of urgent business.

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, Paragraph 29 of the Council’s Constitution.

None.

To consider and make recommendations to Cabinet on the draft budget

2025/26 and the Medium Term Financial Strategy 2025/30.

The Panel received a report which set out the draft 2025/26 budget and 2025-2030 Medium Term Financial Strategy. The report set out the budget setting process for 2025/26 to date and also set out the further steps that would be taken prior to its final sign-off by Full Council in March. The report was introduced by John O’Keefe, Head of Finance (Capital, Place & Economy) as set out in the agenda pack at pages 9-65. The Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning was present for this item, along with a number of officers from the Housing service, including the Interim Director of Placemaking and Housing. The Interim Assistant Director of Housing Demand, Sara Sutton, was also present for this item. Kaycee Ikegwu, Head of Finance (Housing & Chief Accountant), was present for this item, along with Cllr Dana Carlin, Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services. 

The Chair advised that the Panel would be taking sections of the report in turn. The Panel would start with a discussion on the overall budget and its wider financial context (cover report and appended Cabinet report), then they would go through the relevant budget pressures (Appendix 1), then the new savings proposals (Appendix 2), followed by amendments to the capital budget relevant to housing and placemaking (Appendix 3), and they would then look at the pre-agreed savings tracker (Appendix 4). The following arose during the discussion of this agenda item:

a.    The Panel enquired about how much of the stated £32m residual budget gap would be management actions and to what extent were staffing cuts expected. The Panel also sought clarification as to how the subsequent proposals would be adequately scrutinised, if the budget had already gone out to consultation.  In response, the Cabinet Member for Finance advised that officers were in the process of going through the budget line-by-line in order to identify further savings and efficiencies. The Cabinet Member acknowledged that identifying areas of savings was difficult in a context were local council’s had made savings year on year since 2010. It was commented that Haringey faced a particular disadvantage following the changes to the local government funding formula in 2015. In relation to further scrutiny, the Cabinet Member advised that any further savings proposals would be considered by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee in January. It was also commented that the budget consultation process was open until January and so there was a window for further public consultation to take place.

b.    The Panel sought clarification about whether there would be an opportunity to scrutinise further savings that arose after the meeting of OSC on 20^th January. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that an additional meeting of OSC could be arranged if that was required.

c.    The Chair commented that finding £32m of additional savings in light of the amounts that had been found in previous years was a fairly scary prospect. In response the Cabinet Member suggested that it wasn’t just a case of finding savings for next year, they  ...  view the full minutes text for item 209.

RESOLVED

That the work programme was noted.

To consider any items admitted at item 3 above.

N/A

6^th March

16^th December

6^th March