Issue - meetings

Medium Term Financial Plan and Budget 2018/19

Meeting: 19/02/2018 - The Executive (Item 12)

12 Medium Term Financial Plan and Budget 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 2 MB

To submit a report by the Head of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer.

Additional documents:

Decision:

It was resolved –

 

·        To note the formal consultation meetings on the budget and the resulting feedback as outlined in Section 2 of Appendix 1 and in

Appendix 2.

·        To note the equalities impact assessment summary on the budget proposals as outlined in Section 11 and in Appendix 5.

·        To agree the final details of the Council’s proposed budget including the revised funding in response to budget pressures and the proposed savings as shown in Section 10 of Appendix 1 and Appendix 3.

·        That the savings on the delegated schools budget deferred from 2017/18, be allocated across the 3 school sectors on the basis of school balances as at 31 March, 2017 (the last known figure).This would allocate the savings as follows: £399,940 to the primary sector; £53,460 to the secondary sector; £36,600 to the special sector.

·        To note the Section 151 Officer’s recommendation that a minimum of £6.5m general balances is maintained for 2018/19.

·        To note the comments made by the Section 151 Officer on the robustness of the estimates made as set out in Section 8 of the Appendix 1.

·        To recommend a net budget for the County Council and resulting increase in the level of Council Tax to the Full Council, noting that a formal resolution, including the North Wales Police and Community Council precepts, will be presented to the Council on the 28 February, 2018.

·        To authorise the Section 151 Office to make such changes as may be necessary before the submission of the final proposals to the Council.

·        To agree that any unforeseen pressures on demand led budgets during the financial year will be able to draw upon funding from the general contingencies budget.

·        To request the Council to authorise the Executive to release up to £250k from general balances if the general contingencies budget is fully committed during the year.

·        To delegate to the Section 151 Officer the power to release funding from the general contingency up to £50k for any single item. Any item in excess of £50k not to be approved without the prior consent of the Executive.

·        To recommend to the Council a 4.8% increase in the level of the Council Tax.

Minutes:

The report of the Head of Function (Resources) / Section 151 Officer incorporating the detailed revenue budget proposals for 2018/19 and the resulting impact on the Isle of Anglesey County Council’s revenue budget was presented for the Executive’s consideration. The report also updated the Medium Term Financial Plan which provides a context for work on the Council’s future budgets. The Executive was asked to make final recommendations to the County Council to enable it to adopt a budget for 2018/19.

 

The Portfolio Member for Finance reported that the process which has led to the final budget proposals for 2018/19 has been a long, challenging but comprehensive undertaking and thanks are due to everyone who has participated in the process both inside and outside the Council and in particular, the staff of the Finance Service for their hard work and professionalism throughout the process. The initial budget proposals were approved by the Executive on 6 November, 2017; these were published for public consultation on 7 November, 2017. The proposals were based on an increase of 0.1% in the Welsh Government’s provisional revenue settlement which accounts for most of the Council’s funding and although this was better than expected, it was still insufficient to bridge the funding gap. The Welsh Government announced its final settlement figure in December, 2017 giving a total AEF of £95.8m – an increase of £0.888m (0.7%) from the provisional figure but still leaving the Council with a budget shortfall. With most of the Council’s costs relating to staff, the pay award this year which is expected to be around 2.5 % to 3% will have a budgetary impact; additionally, service budgets are under pressure with the most seriously affected being the Children’s Services budget and the Out of County education service budget. The draft budget proposals which were consulted upon identified potential savings of approximately £3.3m; having considered the feedback from the public consultation and the issues raised therein, the savings proposals have been amended as set out in section 10.1 of Appendix 1 in a way that addresses the main concerns raised during the consultation process. The amendments made reduce the total value of the savings proposals to £2.522m. Section 12 of the report updates the Medium Term Financial Plan in light of the improved settlement as well as possible future settlements. However, because of the uncertainty regarding settlements after 2018/19 and the difficulty in making predictions with any accuracy, section 12 outlines two possible models – the worst case scenario as at Table 9  where savings of

£5.26m are envisaged over the next three years, and the best case scenario as at Table 10 where the savings requirement over the same period drops to £2.8m depending in both cases on the changes in Aggregate External Funding and budget pressures and inflation at the time. The Portfolio Member for Finance referred to section 10.3 of Appendix 1 which sets out the options for allocating budget savings of £490k from the delegated schools budget deferred from 2017/18,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12