Agenda and draft minutes

Budget Scrutiny Standard Select Committee, Select Committee Review - Wednesday 29 March 2017 3.00 pm

Venue: Warspite Room, Council House

Contact: Ross Jago  Senior Panel and Partnership Adviser

Media

Items
No. Item

10.

Election of Vice Chair

The Committee will appoint a Vice Chair for this Select Committee Review: Budget Scrutiny.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Agreed that Councillor Ball is appointed as Vice Chair.

 

Under this item Members agreed that the Budget Select Committee meetings in which the substantive agenda item was linked to wellbeing then Councillors Mrs Aspinall would Chair the meeting and Councillor James would be Vice Chair, and when the substantive agenda item related to place and corporate then Councillor Bowie would Chair the meeting and Councillor Ball would be Vice Chair.

 

 

11.

Declarations of Interest

Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest in accordance with the code of conduct.

12.

Chair's Urgent Business

To receive reports on business, which in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no items of Chair’s Urgent Business.

13.

Select Committee Review: Budget Scrutiny

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Ross Jago (Lead Officer) advised Members that the Budget Scrutiny Select Committee Review was a different approach to budget scrutiny in which Councillors would have the opportunity to scrutinise the budget in ‘bite-sized chunks’ through a variety of meetings.

 

Councillor Darcy (Cabinet Member for Finance/ ICT), Andrew Hardingham (Interim Joint Strategic Director for Transformation and Change), David Northey (Head of Integrated Finance) and Paul Looby (Head of Financial Planning and Reporting) presented Members with the budget update report and associated information which highlighted the following key points:

 

 

(a)

Plymouth had set a robust budget for 2017/18, in response to the large reductions to Local Government funding, which looked to address the challenging demands of the city and its residents enabling Plymouth to continue to grow;

 

(b)

despite imposed austerity measures, Plymouth would continue to lobby Government specifically with regards to long term funding solutions for Adult Social Care (ASC). Plymouth City Council raised funding by increasing council tax to support this area however it was not considered a sustainable long term solution. The Council had received a £1.3m grant for ASC but this was a one off payment and would not be available after 2017/18 however the need for support would remain;

 

(c)

additional funding for adult social care was announced in the budget statement amounting to £11.3m over three years with 5.8 received in 2017/18; this funding would come with conditions however the Council would continue to work hard with health partners to assure the new resources were used effectively;

 

(d)

the Council welcomed the announcement of the Green Paper for wider reforms and for longer term sustainable funding options for Adult Social Care;

 

(e)

for 2017/18 Government had reduced Plymouth’s core spending power by £2.2m to £184.1m. To calculate the 2017/18 revenue support grant, an assumption had been made by Government that the Council would increase its council tax by 2% resulting in a generation of £5.1m;

 

(f)

the revenue support grant had fallen by over £10m;

 

(g)

the New Homes Bonus had reduced however the threshold for growth had increased to 0.4%;

 

(h)

capital receipts were being utilised to support the capital programme;

(i)

the Council would be investing significant capital resources to support four key strategic outcomes including delivering Plymouth plan, generating income, maintaining council assets and transforming service delivery.

 

Key areas of questioning related to –

 

(j)

Adult Social Care Funding and details as to when and how this would be distributed;

 

(k)

the devolution of business rates to Local Government and the effect on the Council;

 

(l)

the ‘extended rights’ programme for children aged 11-16, including free school meals, transport and credit;

 

(m)

the allocation of the Better Care Fund and how this would be shared with partners;

 

(n)

the necessity of the increase in Council Tax having regard for additional Government funding secured;

 

(o)

progress linked to the Sustainability Transformation Plan and pilot sites;

 

(p)

BID projects underway and those successful;

 

(q)

preparations for next year’s budget including information surrounding the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

14.

Supporting Information pdf icon PDF 106 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Please refer to minute 13 above.

15.

Recommendations

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Please refer to minute 13 above.