Verbal Update.
Minutes:
The Committee received a short verbal update from the Cabinet Member for Finance and Transformation, Cllr Diakides, followed by a question and answer session around his portfolio. The Cabinet Member set out that the two previous reports painted a picture of ongoing budget pressures and period of flux, due to a range of factors including Covid and Brexit. Last year’s budget was balanced with receipt of government grants, despite some level of uncertainty. The Cabinet Member advised that the best way to ensure that the Council was able to balance the current year’s budget was to have a contingency in place to mitigate budget pressures that arose.
The Cabinet Member highlighted two areas of concern for the current year’s budget; slippages in the capital programme, and the impact of Covid, particularly in relation to undertaking large scale projects on site. The Committee was advised that the manifesto commitments had resulted in significantly enlarged capital programme and that the authority had improved its rate of spending on the capital programme in Quarter 1 this year, compared to the equivalent period last year. The Cabinet Member highlighted that financial predictions and forecasting were improving in terms of their accuracy.
The following arose as part of the discussion of this agenda item:
a. The Committee sought assurances around the impact of Covid and support to frontline services. The Cabinet Member advised that the Council was largely reliant on the government but that the authority would be seeking to safeguard services as much as possible. The MTFS gave the Cabinet Member hope that further cuts could be avoided but that given the level of uncertainty in the financial climate it was impossible to guarantee this.
b. The Committee also sought assurances around what support measures were being offered to residents, particularly in light of the removal of the uplift to Universal Credit and the end of the furlough scheme. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that finance officers were meeting with Director’s to develop growth proposals and focusing on new ways or working. The Cabinet Member also highlighted the Council Tax reduction scheme as an example of action being taken by the council to provide additional support to residents.
c. The Committee sought clarification around how the authority was going to fund the Free School Meals expansion to cover all primary school children by 2022. In response, Cllr Diakides outlined that the financing mechanism and timescales for this were still being developed and referred the Committee to the Cabinet Member for Children. In response to a follow-up question, the Cabinet Member advised that there was a process in place for developing next year’s budget which involved bids being submitted and costings being done. The individual budget allocations would then be assessed in the round.
d. The Committee raised concerns with pressures in the schools budget and in particular pressures around providing Education, Health and Care Plans, stemming from the need for a lack of available teaching assistants to carry these out. In response, the Cabinet Member suggested that a case for funding would need to be made and that the Cabinet Member for Children would be able to provide more details on teaching assistants.
e. The Committee raised concerns about the budget for the compulsory purchase of empty homes not being used. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that it was essential that the Council created a risk around purchasing empty homes and it was hoped that this risk was sufficient to ensure landlords brought them back into use. The budget for this was not sufficient to purchase all of the available empty homes.
f. The Committee raised concerns about the process for the disposal of 141 Station Road and questioned the extent to which the correct financial and oversight processes were followed. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that the issue was being investigated and that he was unable to say much other than he would also be concerned if the investigation raised any procedural failings.
RESOLVED
Noted.