Meeting documents

The draft Revenue Budget 2018/19 was presented to the Committee for consideration.  The context of the budget was the continuing reduction in central government funding. All services were now provided by joint teams with South Bucks District Council. This was reflected  in the Chiltern budgets by recharges to or from  South Bucks in respect of the costs of the various teams.  On 24 July 2017 it was agreed by the Joint Committee that from 2018/19 the standard cost split should be amended to CDC 58%/SBDC 42% and this would be used for all services except Revenues & Benefits and Waste (which had separate arrangements).  These percentages were in line with the population split which was the basis of the cost share set out in the Inter Authority Agreement, and would be easier to administrate and would result in a negligible financial change overall.

The overall position for the draft Revenue Budget 2018/19 was for an increase in the Net Cost of Services of 2.3%.  Inflation estimates were shown in section 4 with salaries at 1% (the Joint Staffing Committee would consider locally determined pay increase in January 2018) and contracts inflation of 3.3%.  Any surplus would be added to the reserves (section 7) and it was noted that the Support Services PAG would be discussing the level of and use of reserves.  The final decisions would be made by Cabinet in February 2018 after the final funding settlement from Government was announced (expected by the end of 2017).

The Council was undertaking a number of large investment projects funded by borrowing and the Committee discussed the proposed borrowing for the Car Park and it was asked whether the interest element should be capitalised.  It was advised that this was not something done at CDC previously.  It was discussed that this was an accounting procedure that would be done in the private sector and something for Cabinet to consider.

With regard to employee expenditure (listed on page 32), there was a request to consider whether it would be possible for the FTE details to be inserted alongside the budget figures in future, so that a direct comparison could be made.  It was agreed that this may be possible with an additional table.  It was acknowledged that the changes to cost shares that have taken place in the budgets this year make direct comparisons difficult but that this would become easier once the changes are complete.

Appendix 3

A request was made for the major changes to be itemised for each service, with explanatory notes for the salient points.

Appendix 4

It was asked whether the Customer Services team dealt with Waste queries and if so why there was no recharge relating to Waste.  It was advised that WDC did pay a contribution to a range of overheads and this recharge was shown within the waste cost centre.

With regard to the training agreement for Revenues with Dacorum, it was advised that the formal arrangement had come to an end at Dacorum’s request.

Appendix 5

Questions were asked relating to the funding for air quality.  It was advised that less funding was available from Defra which grant funded most of the activities.

Appendix 6

With regard to the income from car parking, there was concern that there was no provision made for the loss of income during the rebuilding.  It was advised that the staff were no longer parking there, so although there were 140 less spaces, there should be less of an impact on the level of income from public parking.

Appendix 7

It was reported that the IT cost had gone down in Business Support because license and software costs are being accounted for in the actual services that were using them.  This was another accounting change that would become more straightforward in future.

RESOLVED

To note the draft revenue service budget for 2018/19.

Note 2:  Councillor I Darby left the meeting at 7.15 pm