Report of the Head of Finance, Governance and Assurance [s151 Officer] is attached.

Contact: James Walton      Tel: 01743 258915

It was proposed by the Leader, Councillor P Nutting and seconded by the Deputy Leader, Councillor S Charmley that the report of the Head of Finance, Governance and Assurance on the Financial Strategy 2019/20 to 2021/22, a copy of which is attached to the signed Minutes and the recommendations contained therein be received and agreed.

Some Members had serious concerns about the future finance of the authority and drew attention to the use of ‘one off’s to plug funding gaps, the increasing level of the funding gap by 2021/22 and a perceived over reliance on fairer funding changes from Central Government.  Other Members commented on the potentially unfair impact of digital self-service on some sectors of the community, the references to staff restructure that equated to staff cuts in real terms.  Rather than the presentation of a fait accompli, the need to keep all Members well informed on the real budget issues facing the authority was highlighted as vital going forward.  

A Member raised specific concerns on public health and called for urgent lobbying to be carried out for the appointment of a Minister with responsibility for public health and the need for urgent tracking and risk assessment of decisions relating to public health.  Several Members spoke in support of these concerns and highlighted the need for scrutiny involvement to further investigate the impact of the changes to the public health budget. Several Members believed that the public health budget cuts would have a serious impact on other service areas within the Council, for example, Adult Social Care and Children’s’ Services.

Having heard the concerns raised, a Member commented on the purpose of the report being considered to look forward, to raise awareness of the issues and to indicate the steps being taken to deal with them.  In bringing the debate to a close, the Leader gave assurances of a role for scrutiny in future deliberations.  He stressed that the report presented a worst-case scenario with no assumptions being made on the receipt of grant funding; he added that the Council continued to be ambitious and a stress on finances was ultimately inevitable but manageable.

RESOLVED:

i)     That the financial implications identified in 2018/19 and 2019/20 from the implementation of the amended Pay and Reward Policy, be noted;

ii)    That the 2018/19 savings proposals which will contribute towards the cost of introducing the amended Pay and Reward Policy, as outlined in Appendix 1 to the report, be approved.