Issue - meetings
Medium Term Financial Strategy
Meeting: 10/12/2015 - Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee (Item 57)
Medium Term Financial Strategy
Decision:
(a) That the verbal update on the Provisional Settlement and the Medium Term Financial Strategy be received; and
(b) That the Leader and the Chief Executive be thanked for their efforts in lobbying on the Council’s behalf.
Minutes:
The Chief Executive provided a verbal update on the Medium Term Financial Strategy.
He explained that the provisional settlement had been received the previous day and a full presentation would be provided to Cabinet at its meeting on 15 December 2015. The provisional settlement was a draft but it rarely changed prior to the publication of the final version. However, there was a longer consultation period to March 2016. Based on intelligence from Welsh Government (WG) to expect the same rate of cut for 2016/17 as for 2015/16, the Council had been working on a reduction of 3.5% in Revenue Support Grant (RSG). The average cut for Wales had been 1.4% and Flintshire County Council was to receive a reduction in RSG of 1.5% which put the authority at 12th out of 22 Councils. The difference between a reduction of 1.5% compared to 3.5% equated to £3.8m. Details of specific grants had not yet been provided but it had been indicated that the Supporting People grant would not change which was positive. It was anticipated that the Single Environment grant would be reduced by 6% to 7% and clarification was still awaited on the Families First grant. However, the Council Tax Reduction Scheme was not inflation protected and therefore provision of the scheme would become a budget pressure of approximately £350,000 over the two years to date. The Chief Executive said that it was important to remember that even though Flintshire was 12th in the table for RSG, it was 19th out of 22 for ‘per capita’ funding. The average ‘per capita’ was £1309, Flintshire received £1196 and the highest figure was £1576 which was a substantial difference. Discussions would be undertaken at a later date on the remaining budget gap. The Chief Executive added that the Pupil Deprivation grant allocation per head was to increase from £1050 to £1150 which amounted to £250,000 but this figure was passported directly to schools.
Councillor Aaron Shotton said that the timelines currently set for the budget meetings in December 2015 remained unchanged and further meetings would be arranged for January 2016 which would allow for the opportunity to consider the remaining budget gap. He felt that the improved position in funding should be welcomed along with the strong case put forward by Flintshire County Council to argue the case against cuts to public services. He felt that without the lobbying by the Council, the cuts by WG would have been greater and that the fact that the reduction was only 1.5% should be recognised as a success. He commented on the additional Social Care funding which had been announced totalling £50m but indicated that this was already included in the RSG allocation which was based on a formula. On the issue of Council Tax Reduction Scheme, further discussions needed to take place on exemptions to the scheme. Councillor Aaron Shotton welcomed the lower than anticipated reduction in funding, as a result of lobbying, which he felt was positive.