Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance and Community Development

RESOLVED that

1. the budget setting timetable at Appendix 2 be approved.
2. the estimated funding gap for 2012/13 of £824k at Appendix 3, based upon a 2.5% increase in council tax be noted.
3. the budget strategy outlined in section 4 below be approved.
4. authority be delegated to the Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance, to consider the suggestions from the Budget Working Group in preparing the interim budget proposals for 2012/13 as outlined in section 5.

The Cabinet Member Finance and Community Development introduced the report which outlined the process and timetable for the 2012/13 budget up to and beyond budget setting on 10th Feb 2012.

The current predicted gap was £824k assuming a Council Tax increase of 2.5%. The Government had announced it wished to freeze council tax for a second year and fund it for a year.  However he warned that when the funding was exhausted after one year the Council would face a minimum 5% increase in Council Tax the following year. Since the Council had taken advantage of government funding for 4 years to freeze Council Tax in this year’s budget the Council would face an increase of at least 5% in 2016/17. This had been built into the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS)  to ameliorate it.

The Cabinet Member outlined that the key aims were to protect front line services, develop longer term plans for efficiencies in the MTFS including shared services and a new approach to commissioning, co-ordination of the financial implications of all this through Bridging the Gap group.

The cross-party budget working group established in the last budget had made a number of suggestions about the budget process that would be considered in due course and the group would meet again once a draft budget had been drawn up He reported that the principles being used were no growth (unless invest to save) and no pay inflation and 2.5% inflation.

The Cabinet Member explained that this year consultation should be targeted around specific issues and this would take place between December 2011 and January 2012. In addition to this there would be meetings with the Chamber of Commerce, Trade Unions, Voluntary Sector etc and other Groups upon request and Scrutiny Committees. He highlighted that this would be another difficult budget and the financial difficulties were set to continue.

The Leader of the Council welcomed the proposed targeted consultation in specific areas.

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services stated that whilst the shared services and commissioning work did not deliver immediately he was very encouraged by progress achieved to date and looked forward to more services being delivered in this way. He also referred to the work being done in building capacity within communities.

RESOLVED that

1. the budget setting timetable at Appendix 2 be approved.
2. the estimated funding gap for 2012/13 of £824k at Appendix 3, based upon a 2.5% increase in council tax be noted.
3. the budget strategy outlined in section 4 below be approved.
4. authority be delegated to the Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance, to consider the suggestions from the Budget Working Group in preparing the interim budget proposals for 2012/13 as outlined in section 5.