Agenda item

Financial Prospects and Budget Strategy 2018/19 onwards

Minutes:

The Portfolio Holder for Finance presented the report, which was the first report for the 2018/19 budget setting process.  He advised that it would be the eighth year of using the current Financial Planning Strategy which included the 10-year budget that had proved successful to date and put SDC in a much stronger financial position than most other Councils. 

 

The Chief Finance Officer set out that the report was intended to start the debate and the assumptions would be updated as more accurate information became available during the process.  The major message in the report was that the Council was able to remain financially self-sufficient.  The 10-year budget at Appendix B to the report, included no RSG or NHB in any year as the Council continued to be no longer reliant on direct government funding.

 

Any amounts that were received from these sources were placed into the Financial Plan Reserve which could be used to support the 10-year budget by funding invest to save initiatives and support for the Property Investment Strategy.  Using the funding for these purposes would result in additional year on year income that was not impacted by government decisions.

 

Members agreed the last 10-year budget in February and the changes that have been made since then were:

 

  • Rolling the 10-year budget on for one year and updating base figures.
  • No changes to assumptions have been made at this stage.

 

These changes resulted in a slightly worse budget position at this stage of £81,000 over the 10-year period (or £8,000 pa).

 

The Finance Portfolio Holder had asked that the budget for Asset Maintenance be given a particular focus this year to ensure that the council’s property assets were well looked after.  This was something that officers would be looking into.

 

Appendix A showed the Budget Setting Timetable.  Between October and November Advisory Committees would be presented with their Service Dashboards and Service Change Impact Assessments (SCIAs).  A budget update report would then go to Cabinet in December to include the comments from the Advisory Committees.

 

The 10-year budget approved in February included the need for £100,000 of new savings or additional income each year.  It was reported that Chief Officers were putting the finishing touches to a list of growth and savings items to achieve the £100,000 required for 2018/19.  Chief Officers would discuss these with the respective Portfolio Holders and ask for their ideas before they were included in the reports to the Advisory Committees.

 

Over recent years the Council had tried various ways to get the Advisory Committees engaged in the process and discussing budgetary issues for their services.  The Chief Finance Officer explained that he thought they now had a very thorough understanding of the process and therefore intended to make the Advisory Committee process much shorter this year.

 

Since the report was written, the DCLG had announced that there would be a Business Rates Retention Pilot Scheme in operation for 2018/19 and applications are invited.  The DCLG had made it clear that applications that cover a full county area were more likely to be looked on favourably so in Kent’s case, all districts, Kent County Council and Medway would need to agree.  Initial work suggested that this could be beneficial to the Council but the Chief Finance Officer would continue to work with county-wide colleagues and report back to Members when more detail was known.

 

The Portfolio Holder for Finance advised that the meeting of the Finance Advisory Committee had been inquorate, but those members that had attended had been in agreement with the report.

 

Public Sector Equality Duty

 

Members noted that consideration had been given to impacts under the Public Sector Equality Duty.

 

Resolved:  That

a)     the ten-year financial planning approach and principles set out in the report, be endorsed;

b)     the Advisory Committees be requested to review the Service Dashboards and advise Cabinet of possible growth and savings options; and

c)     officers be requested to continue to review the assumptions in the report and report back to Cabinet on 7 December 2017.

Supporting documents:

 

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