Lead Member – Councillor Malcolm Pate – Portfolio Holder for Strategy, Financial Strategy, Budget and Business Plan

Report of the Head of Finance, Governance and Assurance

Contact: James Walton       Tel: 01743 255001

                        RESOLVED:

i)             That further ongoing savings of £9.263m, deliverable by 2017/18 and £9.985m (a further £0.722m) deliverable by 2018/19, as set out in Table 5 and described in Appendix 2, be agreed and recommended to Council.

ii)            That the revision of the Council’s Growth Model and the allocation of ongoing savings and efficiencies that has resulted in a core funding gap in 2017/18 and 2018/19 of £13.690m and £20.211m respectively, be noted.

iii)           That it be noted that further work is being progressed to deliver a Sustainable Business Model for the Council to close the Core Funding Gap and deliver a financially self-sufficient Council in the medium to long term.

iv)           That the work being undertaken to attempt to reduce or close the reported Core Funding Gap in the short term in 2017/18 and 2018/19 by the use of one-off initiatives (to replace delivery of some Red RAG Rated savings as reported to Cabinet on 27 January 2016) be noted. Cabinet note that to achieve a balanced budget without further Red Savings proposals being implemented would require the identification of almost £34m of one-off proposals over these two financial years which will not reduce the size of the core funding gap in future years (still requiring £28.7m of base budget savings by 2019/20).

v)            That the Efficiency Plan be approved and recommended to Council as described in Section 9 and detailed in Appendix 5 including the proposals around the use of the new flexibilities on the use of Capital Receipts.

vi)           That the latest Adults Growth projections be considered as set out in Section 5 and the creation of a £2.5m contingency Budget for 2016/17 only, be approved as identified in section 4.3.

vii)         That the initial projections produced to identify the Core Funding Gap in 2019/20, as set out in Table 5, be noted.

The Leader presented the report of the Head of Finance, Governance and Assurance and provided an update on the Council’s proposals to manage its financial position for 2017/18 and beyond.  He reported that there was still considerable uncertainty in Local Government Finance but the Chief Executive and the Head of Finance, Governance and Assurance now sat on a Government Panel regarding the funding of elderly care.  It was hoped that the work of the Panel would result in a fairer funding formula but In the meantime there were severe financial problems to address and work was underway to try to bridge the gap and avoid making red savings. 

In responding to questions and comments about services being transferred to Parish and Town Councils, the Leader said that the Council had listened and understood that September 2016 would be too soon for submission of final proposals. Some funds had now been identified to provide an extra 12 months to help Parish and Town Councils to meet the challenge, and outline ideas only were now required by September 2016. Shropshire Council would help as much as it could with the development of proposals.   

RESOLVED:

i)             That further ongoing savings of £9.263m, deliverable by 2017/18 and £9.985m (a further £0.722m) deliverable by 2018/19, as set out in Table 5 and described in Appendix 2, be agreed and recommended to Council.

ii)            That the revision of the Council’s Growth Model and the allocation of ongoing savings and efficiencies that has resulted in a core funding gap in 2017/18 and 2018/19 of £13.690m and £20.211m respectively, be noted.

iii)           That it be noted that further work is being progressed to deliver a Sustainable Business Model for the Council to close the Core Funding Gap and deliver a financially self-sufficient Council in the medium to long term.

iv)           That the work being undertaken to attempt to reduce or close the reported Core Funding Gap in the short term in 2017/18 and 2018/19 by the use of one-off initiatives (to replace delivery of some Red RAG Rated savings as reported to Cabinet on 27 January 2016) be noted. Cabinet note that to achieve a balanced budget without further Red Savings proposals being implemented would require the identification of almost £34m of one-off proposals over these two financial years which will not reduce the size of the core funding gap in future years (still requiring £28.7m of base budget savings by 2019/20).

v)            That the Efficiency Plan be approved and recommended to Council as described in Section 9 and detailed in Appendix 5 including the proposals around the use of the new flexibilities on the use of Capital Receipts.

vi)           That the latest Adults Growth projections be considered as set out in Section 5 and the creation of a £2.5m contingency Budget for 2016/17 only, be approved as identified in section 4.3.

vii)         That the initial projections produced to identify the Core Funding Gap in 2019/20, as set out in Table 5, be noted.