Agenda item

Report of the Director of Finance attached.

The Chair invited the Cabinet Member (Finance, Assets and Public Protection), supported by the Director of Finance, to present the report highlighting key themes of the Draft 2024/25 Budget.

The Committee heard that there had been changes to the draft budget presented to Cabinet last month, largely in response to receiving the final budget settlement. As a consequence, the proposed use of £500,000 from reserves was no longer required and had resulted in the budget gap for the subsequent 2025/26 municipal year being reduced. A big part of the settlement related to New Homes Bonus which had been an area of uncertainly. The Committee heard that the intention was to increase the council’s portion of council tax by 2.99% but given recent financial pressures this was considered reasonable and would support the delivery of the council’s corporate priorities.

The Committee were reassured of the council’s stable financial position given the number of other local authorities around the country currently facing significant challenges. In addition, the council’s commitment to maintaining services was reiterated, though there was an acceptance that services would need to be flexible in response to financial pressures.

Addressing concerns over how residents with low incomes and may be struggling with the cost of living would be able to afford increases in council tax, the Committee heard that changes to the council tax support scheme in recent years had taken away the burden of paying any council tax for those residents most financially vulnerable. Attention was also drawn to the council’s Fair Collection Charter which ensures all avenues are explored before any recovery action is required.

Fees and charges had been reviewed as a means of offsetting financial pressures but it was noted that many are set by central government and cannot be changed, other areas like garden waste collections, parking and leisure centre fees had been considered and decisions taken not to introduce any further increases.

A number of questions were asked on the impact of increasing council by 2.99% over the next three years, as seems to be expected by central government in their budget settlement, as opposed to an assumption of a 1.99% increase included within the Medium Term Financial Strategy. In response, members were informed that a 1% increase in the South Ribble portion of council tax equated to around £85,000.

On the consultation on the budget proposals, members heard that around 180 responses had been received with 70-80% of feedback being a positive or neutral opinion but that the full findings of the questions asked and responses would be included in the budget report that would be presented to Council.

On the current position with regards to redundancies, the council had not made any compulsory redundancies but they had been accepted when restructures and reviews had taken place and staff had requested redundancy, though it was stressed that there were no plans for any redundancies in the next year.

The Committee welcomed the offer to provide further benchmarking against similar authorities, not just geographical neighbours across Lancashire. Benchmarking is undertaken annually as part of the CIPFA Resilience Index and is reported to the Governance Committee.

On the £993,000 investment into the transformation programme, members heard that much of this focused around ICT improvements such as a revamped website and customer self-service channels. In addition, the £110,000 investment in sharing intelligence was a demonstration of efforts to understand and more efficiently target resources where they were needed the most.

It was confirmed to Members that all staff, including apprentices under the age of 21 were paid more than the national living wage.

On plans for the leisure company to fully cover its own costs, the Committee were advised that without significant increases in the costs of utilities then the leisure company would be in a healthy position with increasing use of the facilities and savings associated with operating the centres in-house and not paying for a third party organisation to manage them. Given the ongoing volatility of the energy market it was difficult to predict when the leisure company could become self-sufficient, though decarbonisation and refurbishment works was part of improvements in this area designed to make the leisure centres a more attractive offer for customers.

Questions were raised over potential savings that could close the budget gap in future years – further information had been provided within the budget report to be presented to council. References to expanding shared services were highlighted by the Committee, it was noted that there had been a pause in extending the current shared arrangements any further but there was acknowledgment that potential opportunities would be considered in the future.

The Committee welcomed the offer of the outcomes from the review of the council’s portfolio of assets and commercial contracts being considered by the Corporate, Performance and Budget Scrutiny Committee in the future.

It was subsequently;

Resolved: (Unanimously)

That the Corporate, Performance and Budget Scrutiny Committee;

1.    Thanks the Cabinet Member and Directors for attending and answering questions;

2.    Welcomes the budget update and looks forward to the budget being considered at the next Full Council meeting;

3.    Is grateful for the offer of future benchmarking including comparisons with similar like authorities;

4.    Celebrates that all employees are paid higher than the national living wage; and 

5.    Asks for an update on the review of the Council’s portfolio of assists and commercial opportunities in the future.