Agenda item

The Executive Board considered a report which brought together the latest proposals for the Revenue Budget 2018/2019, provided indicative figures for the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 financial years and summarised the latest budgetary position giving an update on the budget validation, spending pressures, the Welsh Government final settlement and the responses from the budget consultation.

The Executive Board Member – Resources outlined to the Board a number of factors influencing the budget, including, the final settlement received from the Welsh Government on the 20^th December, 2017 which had been more favourable than originally anticipated thereby enabling the Council to revisit some of its initial budget proposals and consider further options including taking account of the latest pay award offer. Whilst the final settlement for this authority had increased by 0.2%, amounting to an additional £1.48m on the provisional settlement, it still represented a reduction in funding in real terms having regard to inflation and other price movements. The settlement also came with extra responsibilities including, increasing the capital limits for residential care, targeted relief for small businesses, which would be pass-ported to those services, together with an additional £399k for homelessness prevention. In addition, whilst a number of gaps had been transferred into the final settlement, confirmation was still awaited on a proportion of those which would support the budget plan, and until such time as those had been announced an element of risk existed on the current plan.

The Executive Board Member - Resources referred to the validation costs within the strategy totalling £8.8m, and advised the most significant thereof related to the pay award offer for staff of 2% plus the bottom loading of the lower pay scales. If implemented, that would result in a bottom pay point of £8.68 from April 2018 (an increase of 8.98%) increasing to £9.18 in April 2019 (a further 5.76% increase) together with the introduction of a new pay spine from April 2019 consolidating some of the existing spinal points and “ironing out” some of the current random grants between pay points. It was noted, however, that the pay offer did not apply to teachers who were covered by a separate national pay arrangement set at 2% from September 2018.

The Executive Board Member – Resources also drew the Board’s attention to the Council’s current three year budget proposal, set in February 2017, which assumed no protection for schools for 2018/19. However, having regard to the need to support schools wherever possible, and as a consequence of additional funding received from the Welsh Government as part of the settlement, it had once again been possible to protect schools and not reduce their budgets, with the 2018/19 delegated budget being held at £108.7m. In addition, and to support schools further with the work being undertaken by the Transformation, Innovation and Change Team, it was proposed to establish a ‘Schools Development Fund’ to operate on an “invest to save” basis similar to the Council’s Development Fund.

The Executive Board Member - Resources advised that in light of the Authority having benefitted from a more positive settlement than originally anticipated and changes in validation together with an element of one-off funding, an opportunity had arisen for the initial proposed efficiencies to be reviewed in light of the consultation responses and to make some critical adjustments to the Strategy. As a result, the following amendments were proposed to be made to some of the report’s budget and efficiency proposals:-

·       The proposed reduction of £50k in the budget for Inclusion services be removed;

·       The proposal for the Care and Support Day Services be revisited resulting in a reduction in the proposed efficiencies of £50k for 2018/19 and a further £25k for 2019/20;

·       The Respite Centre proposal be reviewed and the department give further consideration to service provision options resulting in a reversal in budget of £200k in 2018/19 and £200k in 2019/20;

·       A schools Development Fund of £0.5m be established to support schools to look at invest to save projects thereby strengthening the opportunities for the Schools Efficiency Officer to work with the schools to identify effective alternative ways to deliver the service.

In concluding, the Executive Board Member recommended that the Council Tax increase for 2018/19 be set at 4.45% to enable the Council to deliver the strategy whilst having regard to the above amendments.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED TO RECOMMEND TO COUNCIL:-