To receive Report No. 01/2022 from Saverio Della Rocca, Strategic Director for Resources (s.151 Officer) regarding the draft Revenue and Capital Budget for 2022/23. 

The Special Joint Scrutiny Committee is asked to provide comments and views on the draft budget before the final budget report is recommended by Cabinet to Council in February 2022.

Report No. 01/2022 was received from Councillor K Payne, Portfolio Holder for Finance, Governance and Performance, Change and Transformation.       During the discussion, the following points were noted:

·       The Growth, Infrastructure and Resources Scrutiny Committee was asked to provide comments and views on the draft budget before the final budget report was recommended by Cabinet to Council in February 2022.

·       Members had previously submitted questions regarding the budget to the Strategic Director for Resources and it was agreed that these questions and responses would be published with the minutes.

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Councillor Fox joined the meeting at 7.05 p.m.

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·       Discussions held were related to Appendices 5 and 6 for the Places and Resources Directorates.  Appendix 3 related to the People Directorate and had been discussed at the Special Joint Scrutiny Committee meeting held on the 26^th January 2022.

·       Councillor Payne stated that the Council had only received a 1-year settlement but had managed to draw only £100k from its reserve funding to produce a balanced budget.  Uncertainty around government funding had made future planning difficult and the current funding methodology meant that Central Government was expecting Rutland to raise 80% of its revenue through Council Tax rather than the standard 60% for other local authorities.  This was unfair and the Council was working with the Member of Parliament for Rutland to lobby Central Government for fair funding. 

·       The Council had made over £2 million pounds in cost savings since the budget for 20/21 was approved but there was still a £2.2 million deficit forecast for the financial year 2023/24.

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Councillor Oxley stepped down as Chair and handed the meeting over to Councillor Fox at 7.07 p.m.

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·       Councillor Begy queried the expenditure regarding the employment of external consultants and if members could make the necessary additional cost cutting decisions without the need of an external consultant.  Councillor Payne stated that the Senior Management Team (SMT) had identified areas that would require difficult decisions to be made regarding further cost cuts.  The potential options would be discussed by all Members in due course.  Cllr Payne explained that any consultancy input would focus on the future structure of the Council which goes beyond service savings.

·       Councillor Waller expressed concern that the external consultants may not be specialised enough to deal with the specific issues related to Rutland and that she was not convinced that re-structuring the Council would save money unless it ventured into ‘shared services.’  Councillor Payne indicated that saving £2m from service reductions alone would be complemented by a re-design of the Council and its structure which would highlight areas of duplication and further efficiencies giving cost savings rather than the removal of posts. 

·       The Strategic Director for Resources stated that external consultants may be needed due to the extreme difficulty in finding a further £2.2 million in savings.  Very difficult decisions would have to be made by Members and that Members should understand that the Council will have to do things differently as well as less with reduced management and support costs by 2024.  This could entail either changing services or stopping services.  However, the first task was to carry on exploring whether a transformation project using external consultants was the best thing for the Council.

·       The Strategic Director for Resources confirmed that savings options were being looked at and a face-to-face meeting with Members would be arranged when that work was completed.  He also explained to Members that an early steer on options needed to be made sooner rather than later with proportionate information and that the Council could not afford to spend lots of time on working up options which then were discarded.

·       Councillor Payne replied to Councillor Waller’s query regarding establishing a trading company and confirmed that this was not being considered at this time. Councillor Waller queried why the Council had committed to the recruitment of a ‘Climate Change Officer’.  Councillor Stephenson reported that the Council was committed to being totally ‘net zero’ by 2050 but that this would involve extensive work and the existing staffing resource would not be sufficient to complete the necessary work.

·       Councillor Waller queried the future funding of the Armed Forces Officer and Councillor Razzell stated that support to the armed forces needed to be sustainable, not just in Rutland but nationally.

·       Councillor G Brown suggested that Cabinet could lead by example in cutting costs and reduce the number of Portfolio Holders from six to five.  He continued that there was no justification for the Climate Change Officer detailed in the budget papers and that greater clarity was needed on the cost saving exercise e.g. process, timescales, deadlines etc. 

·       Councillor Oxley queried if the Council could maximise the potential of our fixed assets e.g. sell buildings, museum items.  Councillor Stephenson replied that selling a museum item was technically very difficult and that it also depended on how good the museum collection was.  Councillor Hemsley stated that the asset review was still ongoing but, once completed, decisions could then be made about selling and the Strategic Director of Places reminded Members that assets would be valued at the cost of replacing it and not at its market value.

·       Councillor Fox thanked the Strategic Director for Resources and his team for all their hard work in producing the report and making it straightforward and easy to understand.

RESOLVED:

1.     That the Committee’s comments and views on the Draft Revenue and Capital Budget 2022/23 be taken into consideration by Cabinet when recommending the final Revenue and Capital Budget 2022/23 to Council