Issue - meetings

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