Meeting documents

Venue: Mezzanine Rooms 1 & 2, County Hall, Aylesbury

Contact: Rachel Bennett 

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Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

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Apologies were received from Mr C Harriss, Deputy Cabinet Member for Planning and Environment.

2.

Declarations of Interest

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Mr B Chapple, Cabinet Member for Planning and Environment declared that his son worked in Children’s Services.

 

3.

Hot Topics

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There were none.

 

4.

Question Time

This provides an opportunity for Members to ask questions to Cabinet Members

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There were none.

 

5.

Forward Plan for Cabinet and Cabinet Members pdf icon PDF 95 KB

For Cabinet to consider the Forward Plan

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Mr W Whyte, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services highlighted that the Early Help Review would be presented to Cabinet on 4 March. 

 

Mr B Chapple, Cabinet Member for Planning and Environment highlighted that the Minerals and Waste Local Plan item would go to Cabinet in April rather than March.

 

RESOLVED: Cabinet NOTED the report.

 

6.

Cabinet Member Decisions pdf icon PDF 154 KB

To note progress with Cabinet Member Decisions

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RESOLVED: Cabinet NOTED the report.

 

7.

Budget Scrutiny Report pdf icon PDF 175 KB

1.    Cabinet are asked to consider recommendations 1-10 as set out in the report.

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Mr Tett, Leader introduced the item by highlighting the Cabinet were asked to recommend the Council’s final budget to County Council in February for the final decision.  As part of the process there had been a public consultation and budget scrutiny led by the Finance, Performance and Resources (FPR) Select Committee had taken place across three days in January where each Cabinet Member was held to account for their respective portfolios.

 

Mr D Watson, Chairman of the Finance, Performance and Resources Select Committee and Mrs K Sutherland, Committee and Governance Manager attended the meeting to present the Select Committee’s recommendations to Cabinet.  Mr Watson highlighted the following points:

 

  • Mr Watson thanked all Cabinet Members for taking in part in the budget scrutiny process and thanked supporting officers, in particular Mrs K Sutherland, Committee and Governance Manager.
  • There were 10 recommendations in total for Cabinet to consider and a number of further recommendations that were portfolio focused.
  • Mr Watson recognised there was little choice but to increase council tax, the need for which was reflected in salary inflation projected to be 2%, the inexorable rise in demand in Children’s Services and Adult Social Care and cost inflation from outsourcing.
  • There was an agreement to increase the unitary transition budget and also the Children’s Services legal budget.

 

In relation to the 10 recommendations set out in the report, Cabinet raised and discussed the following points:

  • Mr Whyte, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services highlighted recommendation 5 which requested a realistic budget to be set for legal fees in Children’s Services.  Mr Whyte was happy to accept the recommendations and additional money had been built into the draft budget.
  • Mr B Chapple made reference to recommendation 2 and stated that in some cases due to commercial sensitivity full financial information could not be shared, for example the Energy from Waste contract being run by an external company meant that their profit and loss accounts could not be shared.
  • Mr Shaw highlighted recommendation 8 and the increased budget for gully cleansing and weed management.  Additional money would be spent on main town and village centres.
  • Mr Chilver made reference to recommendation 3 and the requirement of a balance sheet and cash flow budgets to be prepared for a 4 year period.  Mr Chilver stated that this was already prepared for the year ahead and that the new authority would need to consider how best to extend this to cover a four year period.
  • Mr Tett highlighted that this would be the last budget prepared for Buckinghamshire County Council.  Going forward there would be a consolidation of budgets with district councils.  Decisions on the budget of the new authority would not be decided by Cabinet.
  • Mr Appleyard highlighted the request for improved visibility of individual budgets such as the Skills Budget and that there was no budget for schools as the operating of skills improvement was carried out via the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).  Mr Appleyard stated that all information relating to demand for school transport  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Final Budget 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 212 KB

1.    Cabinet are asked to recommend to Council the Revenue and Capital budgets as set out in Appendices 1, 2, 3 and 5 to this report.

2.    Cabinet are asked to agree the schedule of Fees & Charges as set out in Appendix 6 to this report.

3.    Cabinet are asked to note the Business Unit plans set out in Appendices Ai to Aiv in the report, which supports delivery of the Revenue and Capital budgets.

 

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Mr Tett, introduced the final budget report to Cabinet and highlighted the following:

  • The Council’s Strategic Plan and its priorities were taken into account when setting the budget.
  • Members of the majority group had been involved in setting budgets within portfolio teams.
  • Buckinghamshire County Council had been successful in their bid to become a 75% Business Rates Pilot area for 2019-20. The success of the bid would see the County Council and all four District Councils benefit by retaining 75% of the growth in Business Rates rather than the current 50%.  A large proportion of this money was expected to go into the unitary reserves.
  • The Council Tax Referendum threshold had been confirmed at 3%.
  • Following lobbying of central governmentthe draft budget included the assumption that ‘Negative RSG’ would be removed for 2019-20.
  • A fair funding review was currently underway but little indication of the impact on Bucks at the time of the meeting.
  • There was a level of risk in the budget assumptions.
  • Budget Scrutiny recommendations had been taken into account.
  • The Capital programme included additional highways funding now totalling £4m over 2018/19 and 2019/20 and the significant level of investment which was related to the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) bids.

 

Mr R Ambrose, Director of Finance and Procurement attended the meeting to answer any member’s questions and highlighted the following points:

  • Since the draft budget had been out for consultation a number of changes had been made following the meeting of budget scrutiny.
  • The Council had received the Local Government Finance Settlement that was broadly in line with the draft budget.
  • The success in the business rate retention pilot and the use of some of those funds.
  • Updates from the districts included good news on a slight surplus on collection which benefitted the council by about £0.5m in 2019/20.
  • Other pressures relating to transport, in particular SEND transport and additional funding had been added to ensure that it was robust.
  • Mr Ambrose highlighted the appendices that accompanied the main budget report.

 

Cabinet raised and discussed the following points:

  • Mr Chapple highlighted that negotiations for the Household Recycling Centre contract coming to end in March were still ongoing.  It was anticipated that this would be extended for 3 years.  Mr Chapple stated that whatever the figure be, this would be absorbed into the current budget.  Mr Tett stated that there were proposals to introduce charging for some items which was regrettable but reflected the financial situation.
  • Mr Whyte highlighted the prudence of some of the portfolios had resulted in significant investments in Children’s Services over the next 4 years, with £10m additional investment to be added next year alone.  The budget increase was welcomed and had been challenging for the council to achieve, but for the right reasons; for example further in house residential care for our looked after children.  Improvements in foster care over the last few months had also been incredible with an increase of 24% over the last 12 months.

9.

2018/19 Q3 Financial Position pdf icon PDF 209 KB

1.    Cabinet is asked to note the Quarter 3 outturn forecast for revenue and capital budgets and discuss areas of concern.

 

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Mr Tett, Leader introduced the 2018/19 Q3 Financial Position report.  Mr Tett stated that there was still a firm objective to come in on budget.

 

Mr Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources highlighted the following points:

 

Revenue

  • At the end of Q3 the revenue position was a slight overspend of £120k, which had been an improvement of Q2 overspend of £200k and reflected the successful budget and financial management improvement programme.
  • The portfolios with the largest overspend were Children’s Social Care £4.9m, Education £1.9m and Health and Wellbeing £1.4m.
  • There was a forecast underspend in the Planning and Environment portfolio of £1.5m
  • Overall portfolio position was a net overspend of £7.1m but this was offset by corporate underspends of £7m which related to unused provisions and contingencies and Treasury Management savings.  This gave a net forecast of £120k.

 

Capital

  • There was a net forecast capital slippage for the year of £15.9m.  Main components of this figure were in the Leaders portfolio, the Local Enterprise funded schemes where the County Council were the accountable body and in Resources, in particular relating to the Aylesbury Study Centre (put on hold awaiting unitary developments) and funding for technology projects that had been put on hold pending the approval of the new Technology Strategy.
  • There had been accelerated spend on school building projects in Education Capital portfolio.
  • Outstanding debt had reduced from £18m to £10m since the task and finish group had been set up.

 

Cabinet highlighted the following points within their portfolio areas:

  • Mr Appleyard confirmed that those who do not qualify for free transport largely covered the cost of providing the service and that there was an aim to make the fare totally cover the costs.
  • Mr Tett highlighted the particular pressures in children’s social care and health and wellbeing and the corporate contingencies that have helped to mitigate these.
  • Mr Whyte highlighted the hard work of social work management teams around the looked after children population and that the numbers had steadied over the last few months which had helped. He acknowledged that it was always hard to calculate unexpected spends coming into the service and this would present budget challenges.  Mr Whyte highlighted they were still progressing with the children’s homes project and were still looking for additional locations in the south of the County, which not only provided a cost benefit but a benefit to the children being able to keep them in county.
  • Lin Hazell highlighted pressures within Health and Wellbeing included increased service users, increased residential nursing and self-funders exhausting their own funds which then have to be funded by the County Council.  Lin Hazell also highlighted that there were an increased number of cases that had more complex needs resulting in additional support required.
  • Mr Tett highlighted that the slippage in the Capital programme relating to the LEP was monies held by the County Council for capital programmes commissioned for other parties, the spend of which was out of the County Council’s control.  Mr Ambrose confirmed that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

10.

Date of the Next Meeting

4 March 2019

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Minutes:

4 March 2019