Lead Member – Councillor Malcolm Pate – Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Strategy, Financial Strategy, Budget and Business Plan.

Report of the Head of Finance, Governance and Assurance [s151 Officer] TO FOLLOW

Contact: James Walton      Tel: 01743 258915

The Leader and Portfolio Holder for Strategy, Financial Strategy, Budget and Business Plan stated that a report on the impact of the Local Government finance settlement would be made to the next meeting of Cabinet to allow its impact to be fully assessed.  He drew particular attention to the New Homes Bonus reforms and assured Members that the Council would be receiving this funding as it had achieved 1.6% growth.  Referring to the funding of Adult Social Care [ASC], he stated that this was going to be revisited by Government, further changes to the precepts of Parish and Town Councils had been deferred.

The Portfolio Holder for Highways and Transportation added that the Council had been assessed at Level 3 of the Department of Transport incentivisation funding and would be receiving increased income from 2017. The Portfolio Holder for Rural Communities commented on the pressure on rural Council Tax by the Government’s withdrawal of the Transitional Relief Fund.  The Portfolio Holder for Planning, Housing, Regulatory Services and the Environment commented that the New Homes Bonus funding would reduce as more funding was put into Adult Social Care with no overall increase of funding to the authority.  He drew attention to the fact that the Council was ranked 28^th in the country re New Homes Bonus and was delivering well above its weight.  Acknowledging Members’ concerns, the Leader stated that a strongly worded letter had been sent to the Minister regarding funding for Adult Social Care.

A Member commented on the confusion in the funding of Local Government by the current Government and considered that the austerity measures and uncertainties were causing damage to public services.  The Leader responded that the problems caused by the previous Government were still being felt and considered that fair sharing of existing funding would allow the effective delivery of services.

Another Member drew attention to the comments of the local Member of Parliament advocating a merger of Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin Councils in order to achieve significant savings.  However, the Leader commented that joint working and service delivery where possible represented a more reasonable approach.