Issue - meetings

Estimates booklet circulated as separate document.

The report of the Director of Finance and Transformation referred to the responsibility of the Cabinet under the constitution for formulating initial proposals in respect of the budget.  Reference was made to the role of the Advisory Board in assisting the Cabinet and Council in the preparation of the budget within the context of the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and the Council’s priorities.  An outline was given of the process for referring the Advisory Board’s recommendations to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee prior to consideration by the Cabinet on 9 February and thereafter by the Council at its Budget meeting.

The report set out the framework for considering the estimates in terms of the MTFS together with a number of Service specific issues.  The report indicated the factors to be taken into account when updating the MTFS and referred to the Savings and Transformation Strategy (STS) which provided a structure and focus for addressing the significant financial challenge facing the Council.  It was noted that the MTFS would continue to be updated as more information became available and the targets and timescales within the STS would be revisited and realigned with the latest projected funding gap during the budget setting process.

The Director of Finance and Transformation introduced the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement including the Council’s acceptance of the multi-year settlement to 2019/20 and drew attention to the key messages arising from the outcome of the consultation on New Homes Bonus funding.  It was considered that a robust response to the settlement consultation should be submitted by the 13 January deadline in view of the changes to the New Homes Bonus scheme which would bring added funding pressure for district councils and increased risk to financial sustainability.  The Director of Finance and Transformation presented the suggested response, circulated before the meeting, which was endorsed by Members. 

RECOMMENDED:  That

(1)        the proposed response to the provisional local government finance settlement 2017/18, as set out at Annex 1 to the report, be supported subject to the answers to appropriate questions being prefixed by the word “No” for additional emphasis, and the response be submitted by the consultation deadline;

(2)        the draft Revenue Estimates contained in the Booklet be endorsed for consideration by the Cabinet at its special meeting on 9 February 2017; and

(3)        the Savings and Transformation Strategy be updated to reflect the latest projected “funding gap” as part of the budget setting process.

*Referred to Cabinet