Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendations.

Councillor Shotton introduced the report on the Council Fund Revenue Budget 2016/17 for adoption by Cabinet and recommendation to County Council.

            Work on the budget was not complete which was due to the scale of the savings and efficiencies to be found and the uncertainty over the national budget position and its impacts on the Council.

            The Chief Executive and Corporate Finance Manager delivered a presentation which covered the following areas:

·         ‘Building Blocks’ of the budget

·         Initial Forecast for 2016/17

·         Budget Stage 1 Phase 1

·         Budget Strategy Stage 1 Phase 1

·         Impact of Provisional Settlement

·         Service Business Planning Proposals

·         Corporate Finance Efficiency Proposals 2016/17

·         Summary of Revised Gap at Phase 1

·         Budget Stage 1 Phase 2

·         First Stage Second Phase Proposals

·         Summary of Proposals Phases 1 and 2

·         New and Emergent Pressures 1

·         New and Emergent Pressures 2

·         Budget Stage 2

·         Ongoing Work to Balance the Budget

·         First Revision of the MTFS 2017/18 Forecast

·         MTFS Revised Forecast 2017/18

·         MTFS Forecast 2017/18

·         Next Steps and Timescales

There was a remaining budget gap of £1.598m which would rise to around £3.447m when taking into account new and emergent pressures which were under ongoing review.  If approved, ongoing work on the budget would be restricted to the details described in C and D of the report.

The MTFS forecast was based on a working assumption that Council Tax would be increased in 2016/17 by 3%.  Given the outstanding work on the examination of new and emergent pressures, the level at which Council Tax would need to be set would require serious consideration.  This would be determined by County Council.

Councillor Shotton said the details within the report demonstrated the scale of the challenge faced by the authority and provided a clear picture about what the authority aimed to achieve. He commented on the indication from the First Minister that schools funding would be protected be 1% above the change in the overall Welsh Government budget.  For 2016/17 that equated to 1.85%.  The budget proposals met the Ministerial expectation of protecting schools and the Council would continue to review investment in schools, particularly inflationary pressures.

In responding to a question from Councillor Attridge, the Chief Executive said that the Schools Budget Forum had recently met and received an update on the budget, as had the Education and Youth Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the first stage – first phase of budget proposals for the Council Fund Revenue Budget 2016/17 be adopted for recommendation to Council;

(b)       That the first stage – second phase proposals for the Council Fund Revenue Budget 2016/17 be adopted for referral to the respective Overview and Scrutiny Committees, and secondly to Cabinet and then final consideration by Cabinet in February; and

(c)        That the strategy for ongoing work to seek to close the remaining budget ‘gap’ be endorsed and recommend a balanced annual budget to Cabinet in February.