Reason for urgency:

The Chairman has agreed to accept the report papers as an urgent item as it was not possible to despatch the report by the statutory deadline. The Budget Working Group had not been able to meet prior to the statutory despatch date. The Budget Working Group is required to submit their final report to the Committee on 4 February 2014 in order to be able to feed any comments to the Cabinet meeting on 6 February 2014.

In accordance with Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the Chairman had agreed to accept the papers for this item as an urgent matter. The papers had not been available five clear working days before the meeting for the following reason:

The Budget Working Group had not been able to meet prior to the statutory despatch date. The Budget Working Group was required to submit their final report to the Committee on 4 February 2014 in order to be able to feed any comments to the Cabinet meeting on 6 February 2014.

The Chairman of the Budget Working Group introduced the report. She advised that the original purpose of the Working Group, to scrutinise the budget proposed by Cabinet on 5 December 2013, had not been possible. That the draft budget had been amended following a reduction in the Revenue Support Grant which required the Council to make additional savings of £300,000.

The report of the Working Group provided options for the Scrutiny Committee or the Cabinet Advisory Committees for them to consider how budgets were developed and brought together. The Chairman of the Group suggested these options could include: whether the budget assumptions could have been considered earlier or been tested more; whether the Advisory Committees should, on a rolling basis, consider the budgets for each service and in particular the larger services; and how the Invest to Save projects were being assessed. The Group had noted the budget also did not take account of the financial implications of the possible redevelopment of Swanley White Oak Leisure Centre, a matter still under consideration.

The Chief Finance Officer tabled comments on the report of the Working Group. He reminded the Committee that the Advisory Committees received service plans for each service in October and November which they can look at in detail, and put forward proposals to change funding for these services by way of growth and savings ideas.

The Chairman proposed that the terms of reference of the Working Group be revised. He suggested the Working Group report back to the Committee at its meeting on 2 April 2014 with a timeline for scrutinising the budget proposed next year. The Vice Chairman suggested that analysis of the past year could put the Committee in a better position to scrutinise next year’s budget with a further Working Group.

Members raised concerns that the former terms of reference of the Working Group had been too wide. The Chairman agreed that scrutiny of the next budget would also need to begin sooner. The Committee agreed the Working Group should not duplicate the work of the Advisory Committees. In order that the Scrutiny Committee could feed into the 2015/16 budget process soon enough it was -

Resolved: That

a)        the in-depth scrutiny Members’ budget working group continue for the purpose of creating a timeline for the possible in-depth scrutiny of the 2015/16 budget during 2014/15;

b)     the working group report the timeline back to the Scrutiny Committee no later than its meeting on 2 April 2014.