Agenda and minutes

To confirm the Part 1 minutes from the previous meeting

The Part 1 minutes of the meeting held on 11 June 2019 were agreed and then signed by the Chairman.

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Arslan, Barrett, Suqlain Mahmood, Sinha, Symington and Williams.

Councillor Beauchamp substituted for Councillor Sinha.

Councillor Stevens substituted for Councillor Symington.

To receive any declarations of interest

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered -

(i)            must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent

and, if the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest, or a personal interest which is also prejudicial

(ii)           may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter (and must withdraw to the public seating area) unless they have been granted a dispensation.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Members’ Register of Interests, or is not the subject of a pending notification, must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal and prejudicial interests are defined in Part 2 of the Code of Conduct For Members

[If a member is in any doubt as to whether they have an interest which should be declared they should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer before the start of the meeting]

There were no declarations of interest.

An opportunity for members of the public to make statements or ask questions in accordance with the rules as to public participation

There was no public participation.

None

There are no outstanding actions from the previous meeting.

There were no actions to be followed up from the previous meeting.

J Deane provided the committee with a presentation on the Medium Term Financial Strategy. He welcomed questions during the presentation.

The Chairman asked if capital expenditure was part of expenditure or if it was separate. J Deane advised this was the revenue side, so purely the cost associated with the provision of day to day services.

Councillor Adeleke sought clarification that it was a political decision to increase Council Tax. J Deane confirmed it was a political decision and that the MTFS comes from the Portfolio Holder and represents the Cabinets views.

Councillor Tindall said he recalled that in previous years the Government has allowed an additional 1% in Council Tax for those involved in social care. He noted that within the report there was indication that we were looking at a £5 increase and asked if that was correct. J Deane said there were two separate matters there; in relation to social care, the opportunity was given to increase Council Tax by 6% by either 3 years at 2% each year or 2 years at 3% each year. For Districts without the social care responsibility, over the last two years there has been an announcement at the eleventh hour which says rather than the greater of £5 or 1.99% it’s become the greater of £5 or 2.99%.

Councillor Claughton understood that we had been making more savings than needed but asked if we were setting ourselves up for a fall. J Deane explained that in terms of the savings made in the past that have been greater than needed, we had a four year deal that allowed us to smooth the savings requirement because it is largely driven by reductions in Government funding and that doesn’t tend to follow a pattern.  He said you might get a drop of different amounts each year so they smoothed that over a period of time which meant instead of having big or small differences you try and achieve those targets over a four year period. Because of the way that those savings were required it meant we were finding them slightly ahead of time so we would end the four year period in the right place.

Councillor Tindall felt we were still budgeting for savings over the next four years when we should look about restoring some of the imbalances in services, particularly staffing that we previously may have cut too far. He asked if they could really see us having to make further savings through to 2024. J Deane replied there was no certainty so we’ve got to be prepared to absorb reductions enough that we’re not going to be unprepared when they come through, but not so much that we end up making service reductions. He felt that due to the uncertainty we needed to prepare for the worst to give ourselves enough flexibility.

The Chairman asked if the savings targets assumed there will continue to be a negative Revenue Support grant. J Deane explained we had two funding streams  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

There were no changes made to the work programme.