A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Council and councillors

Agenda item

BUDGET SAVINGS 2021/22

Report to follow

Decision:

Cllr Payne, Portfolio Holder for Finance, Governance and Performance, in consultation with Cabinet, recommended to Council that it:

 

1.    Approves the principles (in para 2.2.2) to guide future work and decision making in respect of budget savings;

2.    Approves budget savings of £598k to be applied in 21/22 and changes to funding of £613k;

3.    Delegates authority to the Director and Chief Finance Officer (in consultation with the Chief Executive, Leader and Portfolio Holder for Finance) to spend the £172k in Invest to Save plus £328k from 20/21 anticipated under spends to fund support, if required, that will allow savings projects to be accelerated;

4.    Notes the provisional position on the 20/21 outturn (para 2.6) and that the provisional underspend does not change the projected gap of £2.7m for 22/23.

 

Minutes:

Report No.64/2021 was received from the Strategic Director for Resources.

 

Cllr Payne, Portfolio Holder for Finance, Governance and Performance, Change and Transformation introduced the report, stating that surviving the past 18 months of the pandemic had posed great personal and commercial challenge making it a time like no other experienced in the past. Covid had generated ever changing demands on the Council through rapid and frequently changing regulation and direction, the creation of vaccination and testing centres, administering and delivering over £14m worth and thousands of grants, and the changing demands of social care for residents to name but a few aspects. On top of all of this the Council had continued to deliver business as usual. 

 

The Council was still understanding what the new financial landscape looked like. It continued to carry financial risks that needed mitigating in order to deal with this uncertainty. Much work still needed to be done against this backdrop; the lingering impact of the pandemic could create unknown stresses on income, future Government funding was unknown, a social care white paper was expected and the Council faced capacity and resource issues because Covid demands still conflicted with everyday business.

 

It was against this backdrop that Cllr Payne wished to recommend to Council the principles outlined in the report in respect of future work and budget savings.

 

In respect of the delegated authority to the Portfolio Holder to spend up to £500k to allow savings projects to be accelerated, Cllr Payne emphasised the point that no money drawn down from reserves would be spent unless there was proven significant gain.

 

Some Members had expressed surprise at the £2.4m underspend outlined in the report. £1m was already known about and was a testimony to the prudential management of the former portfolio holder. Budget forecasting had been difficult during the pandemic for the same reasons outlined earlier and in Q4 another lockdown period was entered into which created impacts on budget that were not anticipated eg. there were reductions in  demand for both adult and children’s social care, provision had been made for bad debt on properties which had not materialised and there were a higher number of planning applications than expected.

 

The Q4 outurn report would be scrutinised by the Growth, Infrastructure and Resources Scrutiny Committee on the 10 June.

 

Cllr Payne felt that the large underspend identified was good news as it would help to cushion the blow of the financial pressures that RCC was expected to experience this year such as unforeseen and unknown pandemic demands, a higher than anticipated pay award, the environment bill that would change the way waste was handled, a social care uplift, potential rework of the Local Plan, subsiding the Leisure Contract, and Climate Change demands that were currently in definition. A similar challenge had been identified for 2022/23.

 

 

Cabinet were in agreement with the recommendations outlined in the report.

 

DECISIONS:

 

Cllr Payne, Portfolio Holder for Finance, Governance and Performance, Change and Transformation, in consultation with Cabinet, recommended to Council that it:

 

1.    Approves the principles (in para 2.2.2) to guide future work and decision making in respect of budget savings;

2.    Approves budget savings of £598k to be applied in 21/22 and changes to funding of £613k;

3.    Delegates authority to the Director and Chief Finance Officer (in consultation with the Chief Executive, Leader and Portfolio Holder for Finance) to spend the £172k in Invest to Save plus £328k from 20/21 anticipated under spends to fund support, if required, that will allow savings projects to be accelerated;

4.    Notes the provisional position on the 20/21 outturn (para 2.6) and that the provisional underspend does not change the projected gap of £2.7m for 22/23.

 

Supporting documents: