Agenda item

Consideration was given to report of the Chief Officer Resources.

The Chief Officer Resources presented the report which provided an update on the progress of the Strategic Business Reviews during the period April to June 2021, and the latest assessment of the financial achievement for the current financial year.

The table at section 2.1 detailed the current identified budget gaps for 2022/23 to 2025/26 as per the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy.  Table 2 at section 2.4 and provided the latest estimated achievement of Bridging the Gap over the 5 years to be £4.29m. 

Table 3 at section 2.5 of the report provided details of the remaining budget gaps that we are currently assessing for future years.  In 2021/22 we are anticipating a surplus budget, and budget gaps in the following years.

The Chief Officer confirmed that the Council’s CLT were continuing to identify and develop BtG proposals to close those future years’ budget gaps, and was currently reviewing the Council’s assumptions in the MTFS to ensure they are appropriate moving forward.  Any changes to those assumptions would be reported to Members later in the year along with the MTFS.

The Officer concluded that section 5 of the report provided information on the provisional outturn for 2021/22 and the overall forecast achievement was expected to exceed the original estimated achievement of £0.75k by £0.1m for the current financial year. 

In response to a question raised the Officer explained that in relation to fees and charges for those financial years, we have estimated receiving approximately £40k from the WG Hardship Fund.  There was very little allocated from the Hardship Fund to the BtG proposals for this year.

A Member referred to table 4 at section 5.3, namely assets and property and asked if this was in line with the disposal of property policy, and also whether this could be achieved given the limited resources within the Legal Department.

The Chief Officer Resources explained that any disposal of assets would result in capital receipts and be included within the Capital Budget report.  In terms of resources, she said this should not have a significant impact, and the estimated achievement of £127k was anticipated.

In response to a further question, the Corporate Director Regeneration & Community Services confirmed that the Silent Valley performance report would be submitted to the next meeting of the Community Services Scrutiny Committee.

A Member expressed concern regarding the Council’s disposal of assets which meant that the services were operating from rented properties.  He felt that the Council would be too reliant on rented properties moving forward and the risks associated with rising costs etc.  He requested information on the costs associated with Anvil Court and the percentage of properties leased by the Council.

The Corporate Director Regeneration & Community Services reported that the lease on Anvil Court was up until 2025 and options for negotiations would be considered over the next few years.  He understood the Member’s comments but assured that Officers worked to minimise the amount of money spent on properties to ensure more money could be spent on services.  He undertook to provide a separate report on this issue.

The Committee AGREED to recommend that the report be accepted; and Members provided appropriate challenge to the Bridging the Gap programme.