Agenda item

Councillor Heydon, Executive Member for Transformation and Finance and Stuart McKeller, Director of Resources are invited to attend the meeting to discuss the Council’s budget so far this year. Members of the Commission will be able to scrutinise the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the Council’s budgets, how this is being managed and the context for budget setting.

The update provided to the Executive on 25 August 2020 on the current year's financial position and future year projections is attached.

Councillor Heydon, Executive Member for Transformation and Finance and Stuart McKeller, Director of Resources were invited to attend the meeting. They were asked to discuss the Council’s budget based on the update provided to the Executive on 25 August 2020 on the current year's financial position and future year projections.

Councillor Heydon was unable to attend in person but introduced the context for the session via a pre-recorded presentation.

Stuart McKeller, Director of Resources updated the report where the situation had changed and responded to members questions:

·         the worst-case projected situation for 2020-21 had reduced from £5.5m to £3m overspend

·         income loss until end of August was £7.6m

·         biggest impacted areas within the budget were Adult Social Care at £1.2m, Children’s Social Care at £1.2m, Leisure at £1m and savings which were unable to be delivered as expected totalling £1.4m

·         for Adult Social Care the national priority was to move people out of hospital so there was an additional cost to block book spaces to avoid delays

·         there was an anticipated rise in children social care referrals on return to education settings

·         the process for developing best and worst-case scenarios was explained

·         transformation programme had been put on pause while resources were redeployed to manage the covid situation; this lack of resources was impacting on the ability to drive through projected transformation savings and was a priority for the Corporate Management Team to consider

·         scale of spend in Adult and Children’s social care was acknowledged as having the most impact on the Council; being the areas that were most complex with elements outside of the Council’s control

·         the Council had a relatively low level of external debt but big infrastructure requirements were not feasible without borrowing

·         restricting the scale of future capital proposals would help manage the level of debt so it did not increase

·         the Council had £18m in its future funding reserve, £2m available in general reserves and further funds to manage the costs of transformation and structural changes

·         details of income compensation scheme had been released and only income that was non-recoverable in the current year could be claimed e.g. Everyone Active management fee

·         sensitivity analysis for proposed increases to fees and charges was more complex than ever and is undertaken service by service

·         reinstatement of car parking fees had not resulted in a change in footfall

·         Council services have largely been reinstated but where this was not possible it was due to safety rather than financial reasons

·         discussion whether council tax capping may be relaxed to help fund current situation

·         explanation that one of the key principles aimed to consolidate the recent growth in social care costs by containing any further increases, seeking real term reductions in order to manage below the level of inflation rather than try to reverse them

·         work was continuing on the detailed service specifications and requirements from providers for the Heathlands project in partnership with the NHS and Clinical Commissioning Group and a report would be considered by the Executive in November

·         Council may need to borrow more money for the joint venture but this was different from the debt around the capital spend as it would be based on business cases to fund development on a one or two year basis, after which the debt would be repaid from those opportunities

·         some Coopers Hill occupants could be relocated to reuse the space in Time Square but this would not be suitable those requiring specialist premises such as large halls

·         the unit costs for adult social care had increased; although there were 90 fewer clients since March those remaining were those with complex requirements

·         it was explained that since the budget was set the environment had become exceptional and this required a re-evaluation of the planning and focus on only the most essential pressures

·         financial risks were higher than ever before and this was reflected in the risk register but the Council had built up reserves making it a medium or long term risk and work was ongoing

·         confirmation that the Council was very reliant on Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) contributions for infrastructure projects to go ahead

The Chairman thanked Stuart McKeller, Director of Resources for answering questions thoroughly and noted that Councillors had further queries relating to the support provided to Everyone Active which could not be discussed in the public meeting due to commercial sensitivity.