Issue - meetings

Objective – Update from the Chair of the Budget Scrutiny Working Group on the group’s response to the 2025/26 General Fund and HRA interim budget proposals

Councillor Adrian Bamford, Chair of the Budget Scrutiny Working Group

(Extract of the minutes of the meeting to be held on 8 January TO FOLLOW)

As Chair of Budget Scrutiny Working Group (BSWG), Councillor Bamford said he and other working group Members had been considering the specific role of the group, and deduced that this is not to comment on how the reports have been prepared – there are good processes already in place to check for any technical errors - but to consider strategically how the finance team had arrived at certain decisions.  He said it was unfortunate that the Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets was unable to attend the recent BSWG meeting, but thanked the Deputy Chief Executive for standing in to answer questions, which focussed on budget savings and additional income, considering the green, amber and red categories and what the impact on the budget would be if they didn’t come to fruition as planned. 

BSWG also considered interest rates, noting that these can change at any time, and Councillor Day subsequently met with the Director of Finance and Assets to discuss some outstanding concerns which will be reflected in the final report to Council.  Looking at the savings plan and additional income plan, Members noted that there were some uncertainties, but that provision for this was built into the budget.  Councillor Bamford said that in these difficult times, the council’s sound budget and relatively healthy financial position was a great reflection on the Deputy Chief Executive, finance team, and council as a whole.

There were no formal notes from the previous week’s BSWG meeting, but Councillor Bamford read the following summary:

The Budget Scrutiny Working Group met with Paul Jones and Gemma Bell to review the draft HRA and General Fund Budgets on Thursday 9January. We discussed the proposals in detail.

That review and the feedback provided to this Committee forms part of the consultation on the draft budgets. Cabinet will use this feedback to prepare a final budget that will be presented to the Council in February.

Councillor Day will be having a further meeting with Gemma Bell to discuss a number of areas in more detail and will provide feedback to the Working Group and Cabinet.

The Working Group’s discussion identified the following:

-        The difficulty of achieving the savings targets for 2025/26 was highlighted, with shortfalls in achieving targeted savings over the prior two financial years noted. The need was stressed for specifics on how the money will be saved identified and agreed, with detailed implementation plans in place. In particular the £150k listed under a review of discretionary services needs greater clarity from the Cabinet. (it was noted that savings from the decision on the HRC is not included within this total amount);

-        The Working Group discussed whether it was better to set a more realistic target for savings and payment into reserves, from a financial and political perspective;

-        Concern was raised that the proposed contribution to the general reserves may be optimistic due to the external challenges discussed. It was recommended that the draft budget proposals be reviewed before the final report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9