Issue - meetings

To receive a report from the Budget Scrutiny Panel from its meeting on 1 December 2021 to:

1.    Consider the provisional  budget proposals for 2022/23

2.    Make recommendations to the Executive in line with the Council’s budget and policy procedure rules.

Members received the report from the O&S Budget Scrutiny Panel which met on 1 December 2021 to consider the provisional Budget proposals for 2022/23 and make recommendations to the Executive in line with the Council’s budget and policy procedure rules.

Councillor Schofield, Portfolio Holder for Finance and Governance, advised the Committee that the proposed Budget 2022/23 was not yet finalised as central Government was still to publish the final financial settlement which was expected later in December. Further work was ongoing to address the forecast budget gap. There were encouraging signs that parking revenue was slowly improving; leisure centre visitors were also increasing towards pre-pandemic levels. The final Service and Financial Planning 2022/23 report was due to come to Executive on 27 January for approval and recommendation to Full Council on 10 February. It was agreed that the updated proposals would be discussed at Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 20 January.

Chair of the Panel, Councillor Harrison, summarised the findings from the Panel to the Committee which was set out in the report to the Committee as an Addendum to the agenda pack, and in the Recommendations set out above. He thanked the Portfolio Holder and the Interim Head of Finance and finance team for their responses to the Advance Questions and supplementary questions raised at the Panel meeting.

Members made comments and asked questions on the following areas, discussing the proposals to make savings in the community partnerships area, such as ceasing provision of taxi vouchers and pausing Medium Grants and Small Grants.

Budget savings ­– Members noted the forecast budget gap of £700k and asked about wider service savings to bridge this gap. They discussed the proposals to pause the Medium Grants and Small Grants scheme, to withdraw the taxi vouchers scheme and reduce the Borough News publication to a single issue a year. Had other savings been considered, for example, exploring further savings on staff salary costs if posts had not been filled? It was noted that saving costs by sharing services across local authorities generated some opportunities but also presented some risks.

It was confirmed that there were 22 full-time equivalent staff (FTE) vacant posts at the time of the Panel meeting, equating to £1m salary and on-costs. Head of Paid Service, Mari Roberts-Wood, advised that the vacancy rate was a snapshot at any one time. The current vacancy rate was within the usual range with less than 5 per cent of the total workforce. She confirmed that all vacant posts were reviewed by HR and senior managers when vacancies arose and before going out to recruitment.

Taxi vouchers – Members discussed the proposed to withdraw the taxi voucher scheme to save £43k costs a year. This would affect mainly elderly residents with mobility issues who currently received up to £120 of taxi vouchers per annum. The Panel had noted that this budget was consistently underspent each year by about £20k. Members asked whether the budget had been underspent due to the pandemic lockdowns when  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50