Agenda item

Councillor Willmott submits a report that requests Cabinet to consider a three year corporate budget strategy, three year departmental revenue strategies for each department, and a general fund budget for 2008/09 and to recommend these to the Council.  Cabinet is asked to approve a number of recommendations as set out in paragraph 3.1 of the report. 

The relevant minute extracts from the Children, Schools and Young People Task Group held on 16 January 2008, the Regeneration and Culture Task Group held on 23 January 2008, the Adults and Housing Task Group held on 28 January 2008, the Joint Meeting of the Performance and Value For Money Select Committee and the Community Cohesion and Safety Task Group held on 1 February 2008 and the Health Scrutiny Committee held on 4 February 2008 are attached. 

The relevant minute extract from the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board to be held on 14 February 2008 will be circulated as soon as it is available.

The Departmental Revenue Strategies are attached for Members of the Cabinet only.  Further copies are available on the Council’s Web Site at:  http:www.cabinet.Leicester.gov.uk or by phoning Committee Services on 0116 229 8818.

Councillor Willmott submitted a report that requested Cabinet to consider a three year corporate budget strategy, three year departmental revenue strategies for each department, and a general fund budget for 2008/09 and to recommend these to the Council.

The relevant minute extracts from the Children, Schools and Young People Task Group held on 16 January 2008, the Regeneration and Culture Task Group held on 23 January 2008, the Adults and Housing Task Group held on 28 January 2008, the Joint Meeting of the Performance and Value For Money Select Committee, the Community Cohesion and Safety Task Group held on 1 February 2008, the Health Scrutiny Committee held on 4 February 2008 and the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board held on 7 February 2008 and 14 February 2008 had been circulated to the Cabinet.

It was also noted that comments from Unison and UCU & JTU on the budget proposal had been circulated to the Cabinet.

Councillor Willmott recommended that Cabinet approve the budget for recommendation to Council.  He referred to the minute extracts from the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board on 7 February 2008, relating to the Departmental Revenue Strategies (DRS), and asked Cabinet members to comment to each one in turn.

In relation to the Children and Young People’s Services DRS, Councillor Dempster addressed comments from the UCU and stated that funding towards the Transforming Leicester Learning Plan had been received from the Department for Education and Schools through the budget and also through the redirection of existing money.  She believed the plan was fully fundable.  In response to the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board’s comments with regard to equal pay compensation for staff in Voluntary Aided Schools, the Interim Chief Executive confirmed that she was taking legal advice on the matter.

In response to the comments made by the Management Board on the Adults and Housing DRS, Councillor Corrall stated that despite pressures it was hoped that the department would break even by the end of the financial year.  He added that a review on community centres was to take place and that a paper on the future of these would be brought to a Cabinet meeting.  He stated that at this point in time, he could not promise that all community centres in the City would remain open indefinitely, and this was partly due to the inadequate funding of the centres by the previous administration. 

With regard to Scrutiny’s comments on the Regeneration and Culture DRS, Councillor Kitterick reported that the vast majority of the 10/11 inner circle bus service had been retained, whilst still delivering £300,000 worth of savings.  In relation to environmental services, Councillor Wann reported that additional money had been invested in Leicester in Bloom, Pest Control, City Wardens and Graffitti services.  In response to the point about police not fully meeting security costs for festivals, Councillor Connelly shared the concerns of the Management Board.  He hoped that the Leicestershire Constabulary would reconsider their position in light of their new budget, so that more money could be spent on festivals themselves.  In response to the fourth recommendation the Interim Chief Executive stated that the schools forum had agreed to invest additional resources into school meals, and that young people were to be heavily involved in the shaping the new service. 

Councillor Draycott responded to Scrutiny’s comments made on the Resources DRS.  She stated that there would be an opportunity to review the Coroner’s Service in 2009 and acknowledged that this service had a significant impact on the council’s budget.  In response to the comment relating to the funding towards community meetings, Councillor Draycott stated that that this was offset by savings incurred in previous years.  In relation to the comments on staff surveys, Councillor Draycott highlighted the worth in conducting these, and stated that these should regularly take place.  Councillor Draycott responded to the final comment by explaining that it was vital that the authority made better use and greater centralisation of its data.

Councillor Willmott thanked the Scrutiny Committees for all comments made.

RESOLVED:

(a)that the draft 3 year financial strategy for 2008/09 to 2010/11, the draft departmental revenue strategies prepared by each director, and the draft overall budget for 2008/09 as described in this report be considered;

(b)that the intention to revise the 3 year financial strategy in the light of a longer-term financial strategy for the City as a whole, to be developed with Leicester Partnership be noted;

(c)that the Chief Finance Officer be asked to prepare a formal budget and council tax resolution, and consequent prudential indicators, for Council approval;

(d)that subject to the approval of the budget by the Council on 20 February and the Council’s normal procedures, corporate directors be authorised to take any action necessary to deliver their departmental revenue strategies for 2009/10 to 2010/11;

(e)subject to the approval of the budget by the Council, to authorise the Director of Resources to spend the budgets of £10,000 allocated to each ward, in order to implement spending decisions taken at community meetings;

(f)to note that significant adjustments to the budgets of departments will be made to reflect the incidence of costs arising from the new job evaluation scheme, and that the Chief Finance Officer has already been authorised to make such adjustments;

(g)that the Chief Finance Officer be authorised to calculate and give effect to the following budget adjustments, for which provision is presently held corporately:

Ø      the impact of the revaluation of the pension fund;

Ø      the impact of any increase in the costs of energy, within the available provision;

Ø      savings realised by the Business Improvement Programme, to the extent that such adjustments have not already been made;

Ø      decisions taken by the Cabinet in October in respect of phase one of Building Schools for the Future (and later development phases);

(h)that it be recommended to the Council that the approved budget shall form part of the policy and budget framework of the Council, and that future amendments shall require the approval of full Council, subject to the following:

Ø      the Cabinet may authorise the addition, deletion or virement of sums within the budget up to a maximum amount of £1m (either one-off or per annum) for a single purpose;

Ø      the Cabinet may determine the use of corporate budget provisions for service transformation and the customer transformation fund;

(i)that the schedule of determinations to the Council’s finance procedure rules as shown at Appendix 6 be agreed;

(j)that it be recommended to Council that, subject to its approval of the budget, the elements of the budget shown at Appendix 7 to this report shall be controllable budget lines for the purposes of Finance Procedure Rule 4.3.6 (being the level at which the budget is disaggregated for the purposes of applying the Council’s virement rules);

(k)that the treasury strategy included as Appendix 8 and the investment strategy included at Appendix 9 to the report be approved and recommended to Council for approval;

(l)that Council be requested to delegate authority to the Chief Finance Officer to vary components within the Council’s overall borrowing limit (the “authorised limit”) which relate to borrowing and other forms of finance;

(m)that capital sums set-aside for area committee works, and any underspent area committee budgets and reserves at the end of 2007/08, be utilised to fund the community meetings’ budgets and associated support be agreed;

(n)to recommend that the proposed policy on minimum revenue provision described in section 23 of the report be approved by Council