Issue - meetings

            That the Committee endorses the framework for the revision of the Medium Term Financial Strategy 2016/17 – 2018/19

The Chief Executive introduced a report to provide Members with updated information on the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for 2016/17 – 2018/19. 

                        The first year of the MTFS for 2015/16 had been agreed and published in 2015 and the next version had been considered by Cabinet on 19 April 2016 and covered the period 2016/17 - 2018/19.  This was significant as 2019 was the year intended by the outgoing Welsh Government (WG) for the election of shadow authorities as a first step towards the re-organisation of local government in Wales.  The financial forecast for 2017/18 to 2018/19 was constantly changing and paragraph 1.05 provided details of a revised forecast totalling £17.20m.  However, a number of footnotes for issues that were being considered but not yet known had been included, such as the impact of Social Care transition costs and the assumption of a 3% rise in Council Tax.  The Chief Executive reminded Members that clarity from WG had not been received for longer term funding and therefore assumptions had been broadly made based on figures from the previous year.  The Council had adopted a three part strategy of:-

·         Service Reform

·         Corporate Financial Stewardship; and

·         Working with Welsh Government

It had been recommended that Cabinet continue with the strategy and work on service portfolio business plans would be shared with Overview & Scrutiny Committees in June 2016.  The Chief Executive emphasised the importance of demonstrating to WG how efficient, resilient and high performing the Council was, despite being such a low funded authority.  He spoke of the risks involved in receiving reduced funding and the discussions that were ongoing particularly about the charging cap for social care and the lower share of funding that the Council received based on demographics and deprivation.  He also commented on the Independent Commission for Local Government Finance in Wales report which recommended that Councils would be able to retain National Non Domestic Rate (NNDR) income growth. 

            The Finance Manager – Strategy Accounting and Systems advised that the footnotes shown in the tables included assumptions and reiterated that the information was constantly changing.  The figures for 2018/19 were currently low but the figures would increase as a result of the significant amount of work that was ongoing. 

            Councillor Richard Jones indicated that he had difficulty in supporting the third part of the strategy to lobby WG as he felt that any results could not be relied upon to support the budget.  He spoke of the hard work by Members and officers and said that he was not implying that it was not a good idea to work with WG but it was the reliance to bridge the gap that he was uncomfortable about supporting.  The Chief Executive said that the Council was not at this stage relying on any assistance from WG but wanted to be able to take forward a strategy that could provide help particularly in areas such as reductions in Revenue Support Grant (RSG) and the Social Care sector.  He commented on the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7