Agenda item

Report No: PAS/WS/20/002

The Committee received Report No: PAS/WS/20/002, which explained that at its meeting on 26 September 2019, the Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee (PASC) agreed the principles and approach for delivering a balanced budget in 2020-2021 and a medium-term financial plan for the years up to 2023-2024.  Those principles were:

·         The 2020-2021 budget and medium-term financial plans will continue to follow the West Suffolk Council Strategic Framework (three priorities) and Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) (six themes).

·         The budget and MTFS will reflect any new initiatives developed as part of the revised Strategic Plan.

·         The budget and MTFS will include the forecast impact of initiatives that address our financial challenges and seize opportunities to reduce the existing budget gaps.

·         The process will continue to communicate the overall West Suffolk financial challenges and opportunities through the MTFS to Leadership Team, staff, cabinet and all councillors.

Workshops took place during August-December 2019 alongside a detailed “line by line” review of each services cost base to ensure that budgets were only set for planned and understood expenditure.  A report setting out the changes in cost and income assumptions that had been identified at that point through that process was presented to PASC on 28 November 2019.

The Committee on 30 January 2020 was updated on the workshops and line by line reviews which had now concluded and any further proposed changes in cost and income assumptions, as a result had been included in Table 1 of the report, including those relating to budget assumption changes:

-      Confirmation received for the continuation of the Rural Services Delivery Grant in the Spending Round.

-      Confirmation of the increase in the tax base for council tax setting purposes (number of properties chargeable for council tax)

-      Known changes to property lease changes and renewals (retail and industrial units)

-      An additional year of Housing Support Grant allocation to fund the additional resources within the housing team.

The net impact of each of these assumption changes was included in Table 1 of the report.  These changes and the outcomes from the Budget Challenge workshops gave rise to a budget gap (cumulative) of £0.06m for 2020-2021, £1.7m for 2021-2022, £2.2m for 2022-2023 and £2.7m for 2023-2024. 

Officers explained that at this stage, the report did not include any assumptions on the final outcomes of the Parking Review Group or Council Tax.

The report also included information on corporate reviews – expenditure; corporate reviews – income assumptions; the current outlook; timescales and next steps.

The Committee considered the report, which included Table 1 and the budget assumptions changes.

Discussions were held on the budget gaps from 2021-2022 to 2022-2023; precepts; savings realised from the creation of the West Suffolk Council and the budget briefings being held on 4 February 2020 at West Suffolk House and 10 February 2020 in Mildenhall.

Councillor Victor Lukaniuk then moved the recommendation, this was duly seconded by Councillor Ian Houlder, and with the vote being unanimous, it was

          RECOMMENDED:

That subject to the approval of Council, as part of the budget setting process, the proposals detailed in Section 2 and Table 1 of Report No: PAS/WS/20/002, be included in securing a balanced budget for 2020-2021 and the medium-term financial plans.