Agenda item

Officers presented Planning, Environment and Community Services’ budget report to the Committee.

The budget report to Council for Council Tax setting for 2010/11 contained an initial savings requirement of £20.3m for 2011/12.  As part of the continuing work on the HIP Business Improvement Delivery project, a budget strategy was devised to address this gap.  Each group was given a specific savings target for 2011/12 to deliver through their BID programme, with the initial total savings target set at £10.5m.  In addition groups were tasked with reviewing and reducing all pressures and a review was also started on all corporate pressures

The revenue budget proposals had been developed to deliver a zero increase in Council Tax for 2011/12 whilst maintaining balances and reserves at £12m over the medium term.

The real challenge in delivering a balanced budget for 2011/12 was the development of significant savings of around £22m, more than double the £10.3m required in 2010/11.  Those savings proposals had been developed alongside the in-year challenge of responding to a £3.6m government grant cut to funding in 2010/11.  The main pressure for the Council to deal with was the income from Government Formula Grant reducing by an estimated £10.8m.  This was partially offset through an additional central government grant enabling a freeze in Council Tax in 2011/12.

In addition to the £22m savings proposals are £3.8m of corporate pressures, £7.5m of service pressures, an allowance of £2m for inflation, proposals for £0.3m of growth and a reduction to the contingency requirement of £0.5m.

The development of savings proposals had concentrated on more efficient delivery methods and the new operating model and focusing on core services; and on not creating new pressures by providing services no longer funded by Central government, but instead seeking to avoid local impact as far as possible by new ways of working. 

The draft capital programme for 2011/12 and indicative allocations for the following three years were detailed.  The draft capital programme over four years was worth £256.5m with £105m of capital expenditure in 2011/12.  This included funding for new General Fund projects of £8.3m for the development of Yiewsley Pool site which includes a new heath centre, and a major refurbishment of the Central Library.

In addition, the capital programme provided almost £9m of funding for key ongoing programmes including the Chrysalis programme, the Leader’s Older Peoples Initiative and the upgrade of local town centres; and £19m of funding for ongoing major projects such as the Libraries refurbishment programme, Highgrove Pool Phase II and the South Ruislip Development

The initial approach to the delivery of savings within Planning Environment & Community Services Group had been largely driven by the delivery of efficiencies through the merger of the former 2 groups of Planning & Community Services and Environment & Consumer Protection. The savings programme development had also focused on a rigorous review and questioning of expenditure across the combined Group, and has reviewed the scale of fees and charges. The work to date had identified savings of £3.45m in 2011/12. The savings had been developed within 3 main categories.

BID Efficiencies – The creation of 4 new service heads within the combined group had enabled large scale reorganisation, restructuring and removal of duplication. The next stage in the development of these new service groupings would focus on the roll out of the Council’s operating model in order to identify further savings opportunities.

Expenditure Review – With the formation of the new Groupthe opportunity had been taken at a strategic level to question the need for services and method of service delivery in all areas.  At an operational level the expenditure review process had also generated savings opportunities.

Fees & Charges – Opportunities exist within the Group to review the scale of fees and charges, and a number of savings proposals had been developed on this theme.

The Committee thanked Officers for a well presented report. Members thanked officers for taking a compassionate stance to job losses and understood the reasons for the proposed savings.

To Note:

The Committee noted the budget projections and combined budget proposals put forward by the Planning Environment & Community Services Group, within the context of the corporate budgetary position.