Agenda item

Members will be asked to comment on the draft General Fund Revenue Budget 2019/20 to 2021/22, which will be considered at the meeting of Council on 20 February 2019

The draft budget has been considered by the different Scrutiny Commissions and draft minute extracts from the following meetings are attached:

Draft General Fund Revenue Budget 2018/19 to 2020/21 (Appendix D)

Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission: 22 January 2019 (D1)

Economic Development, Transport and Tourism Scrutiny Commission:  17 January 2019 (D2)

Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Commission: 15 January 2019 (D3)

Heritage, Culture, Leisure and Sport Scrutiny Commission:  8 January 2019 (D4)

Housing Scrutiny Commission: 7 January 2019 (D5)

Neighbourhood Services and Community Involvement Scrutiny Commission: 23 January 2019 (D6)

Because of the timetable of Scrutiny Commission meetings, a further minute extract from the Children, Young People and Schools Scrutiny Commission will be circulated after the agenda has been published.

The Director of Finance submitted the Draft General Fund Revenue Budget 2019/20 to 2021/22. Members were asked to comment on the Draft Budget, prior to its consideration at the meeting of Council on 20 February 2019.

The Chair introduced the budget and explained that people were living in times of austerity and cities like Leicester had suffered the most. The Council’s budget (on a like for like basis) had fallen from £358m in 2010/11 to £291m in  2019/20. The managed reserves strategy had helped the Council to continue to provide services.

The Director of Finance stated that the budget was a one-year budget with a three- year outlook, however there was a significant level of uncertainty as it was not yet known beyond 2019/20 how the Local Governing Financing system would work. In addition, it was not known how the Government would deal with the significant pressures around Adult and Children’s Social Care. The budget had been discussed at all the Scrutiny Commissions and minute extracts of those discussions had been circulated and would be appended to the report for Council.

The City Mayor said that he was very grateful for all the comments received from Scrutiny Commissions so far. Members heard that the Economic Development, Transport and Tourism Scrutiny Committee had requested a breakdown of bus lane enforcement income and Members should either have received that information or would do very shortly.

During the ensuring discussion, comments and queries were raised and the responses included the following:

·      Councillor Cutkelvin, Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Commission stated that concerns had been raised at their meeting on 15 January 2019 which had not been included in the minutes, relating to additional pressures arising from the rising costs of licensed drugs treatment. This had been raised in connection to the contract with Turning Point.  Councillor Cutkelvin said that in the context of Brexit, there had been news that the NHS could be impacted by the increased cost of drugs and she questioned whether there were any other risks of that nature that would affect the Health and Wellbeing budget envelope.

The Director responded that she was aware of such issues in relation to the Drug and Alcohol Service and which might also apply to the Sexual Health Service. A number of different suppliers were being used, as cost pressures could arise from being in a single supplier environment.  This had been included in the risk register relating to Brexit and it was an issue that would continue to be monitored. There may be some issues arising from Brexit that would fall on Public Health and partner relations. The Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance was the lead in preparing for Brexit and would have more information on this.

·      Councillor Cleaver, Chair of the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission said that Adult Social Care was a demand led service and the Commission understood the challenge of the budget and the difficulties arising because of the delay to the Green Paper.  She asked whether there could be any further preventative measures put in place to help families and middle age people, because Adult Social Care affected other age groups and not just elderly people.  The City Mayor agreed that as far as possible, the Council should continue to invest in preventative measures to help people’s health and wellbeing.

·      Councillor Porter asked if the Council had broken any rules by transferring funds from Adult Social Care to Children’s services. He expressed a concern that the Council had misled people by doing this and questioned whether it was likely to happen again.

The City Mayor replied that between 2010 and 2020, the Council had seen significant cuts in spending power but while the budget had decreased significantly, the Council had increased its spending on both Adult Social Care and Children’s Social Care.

The Director of Finance explained that the Council had put significantly more money into Social Care than was raised through the precept. Efficiencies had been made because the Strategic Director had been able to deliver savings ahead of target and the savings were available to support the budget. The Director added that she would be required to certify that money raised through the precept was used for Social Care and this was something which she would be happy to do. 

The Chair asked Members whether they supported the recommendations for Council, which were set out in Para 3 of the report. The Chair read out the recommendations as follows:

1)    approve the budget strategy described in the report and the formal budget resolution for 2019/20, which will be circulated separately;

2)    note comments received on the draft budget from scrutiny committees, trade unions and other partners;

3)    approve the budget ceilings for each service, as shown at Appendix One of the report;

4)    approve the scheme of virement described in Appendix Two of the report;

5)    note the view that reserves will be adequate during 2019/20 and that estimates used to prepare the budget are robust;

6)    note the equality implications arising from the proposed tax increase, as described in Paragraph 10 and Appendix Four;

7)    approve the capital strategy, and associated prudential indicators, described in Paragraph 19 and Appendix Three;

8)    emphasis the need for outstanding spending reviews to be delivered on time, after appropriate scrutiny; and

9)    agree that the finance procedure rules applicable to trading organisations (4.9 to 4.14 of the report) shall be applicable only to City Catering, Operational Transport and Highway Maintenance.

AGREED:

that the Overview Select Committee support all the above recommendations as set out in the report.

Councillor Cutkelvin left the meeting during the consideration of this item of business and Councillor Porter left the meeting at the conclusion of this item of business.