Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive any declarations and advise Members accordingly.

None.

As detailed in the recommendation.

The Chief Executive introduced the item and explained that the information on the Provisional Local Government Settlement would be looked at carefully and a response would be prepared.  A report would be submitted to Cabinet in January 2021 with proposals for the budget. 

A presentation was delivered by the Chief Executive and the Corporate Finance Manager which covered the following:

·         Recent Events

·         Provisional Settlement – Headlines

o   Average uplift in Revenue Support Grant (RSG) for local government of 3.8% after transfer adjustments

o   Range of increased Council by Council from 2.0% to 5.6%

o   Flintshire was on the average this year based on the demographic data which was applied to the Local Government Funding Formula and would receive 3.8%

o   Additional £10m for Social Care Workforce Grant on top (up to £0.5m for Flintshire)

o   The allocation for local government at £176m is £104m less than the total requirement presented by the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA)

·         Specific Grants: list of grants published and variations being worked through.  Some potential risks to core budgets if any reduction in grant

·         Capital: an unchanged allocation for local government.  Confirmed continuation of the Public Highways Refurbishment grant

·         Continued Emergency Funding: provision made in Welsh budget

·         Public Sector Pay Policy:

o   The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s UK Spending Review Announcement made no provision for public sector pay awards other than lower paid workers (Flintshire had included £600k in its budget estimate for this) and NHS workers (not applicable to Flintshire)

o   UK Government could not dictate pay negotiations for local government in the UK or teachers’ pay in Wales which was now a devolved function

o   Any additional pay awards for 2021/22 would need to be fully funded over and above the level of Settlement

o   Details of the Ministerial Statement

o   The WLGA case for £280m included full provision for pay awards

o   Built in provision for a pay award for lower paid employees as per UK Government policy

o   No budget provision in the revised minimum budget estimate for any further pay awards

·         Analysis – Impacts for Flintshire

o   Flintshire appealed to Ministers for a minimum uplift in RSG of 5.7% against a minimum budget estimate of £16.750m (with full provision for pay awards calculated prior to the Spending Review)

o   If the Spending Review was to be applied – and pay awards could be removed from the minimum budget estimate reducing it down to £13.818m – then an uplift in RSG of 4.1% would be sufficient

o   On the lower minimum budget estimate the RSG uplift was around £0.6m or 0.3% short

o   Subject to the working assumption on national pay policy we could aim to set a legal and balanced budget on these figures with an annual Council Tax rise of under 5% and with ongoing work on (a) budget estimates and (b) emergency situation bad debt provision aiming to generate additional funding of £1.5m to set in the base against the major open risks

·         Provisional Settlement - Response

o  ...  view the full minutes text for item 73.