To consider a report on the
Budget for the Dorset Council.
Minutes:
The committee received and
considered a report of the Lead member for Finance and Interim Section 151
Officer, which provided an update on the finance of Dorset Council and how a
balanced budget for 2019/20 had been developed.
The Shadow Overview and Scrutiny Committee was invited to consider any
comments that they wished to make on the 2019/20 budget to be forwarded for
consideration by the Shadow Executive Committee on 11 February 2019. The 2019/20 budget would be set by the Shadow
Council on 20 February 2019.
The Lead Member for Finance,
Councillor Ferrari introduced the report and provided an overview of the work
that had been undertaken. He noted that
a key element of the work had been about bringing together financial efficiencies
and was not about reducing services.
Transformation was not within the scope of the work that had been
undertaken, but the budget ensured a stable position for the new Council to
progress this work.
In addition to the report,
the Interim Section 151 Officer provided a presentation for the committee which
covered:
·
The headlines
from the budget proposals
·
What had been
done to make sure that the budget process and proposals were robust
·
The risks in the
budget
·
The future
challenges
·
What would happen
next including the timetable for approval of the budget
Members considered the issues
arising from the report and presentation and during discussion the following
points were raised:
·
In response to a
question, members noted the financial impact of the Dorset Waste Partnership
not being able to use low quality recycling.
It was also noted that fuel costs had been higher in the current
financial year and the impact of maintenance costs
·
Car parking
charges would not be changed for the next financial year
·
Where charges
were being aligned across the area it was noted that this had been driven by
advice from service experts. It was not
a common policy to always align charges at the highest level. There was a request for information on new
charging structures to be included in the briefing to be provided to members
·
The position with
Negative RSG was seen as good news within the financial settlement
·
Reference was
made to work undertaken to harmonise Council Tax across the area of the Dorset
Council from day 1 and it was noted that the change in Council Tax level would
vary across the different existing council areas depending on the current
Council Tax base for each existing council
·
In response to a
question it was noted that further work would be undertaken on the asset
strategy
·
LGR
implementation costs were an estimate at the current time
·
In response to a
question it was noted that all councils were bringing in investments and
reserves to the new Council. During the
work in bringing the budget together there was a focus on the end point. A request was made for the relevant figures
from each existing council to be provided to members at the briefing on the
budget
·
The bringing
together of pensions was not part of this work
·
In response to a
question with regard to vacancies in some areas, it was noted that this was a
current risk for all of the councils.
This was a risk for the new council and would need to be monitored
·
A discussion was
held with regard to the position with Dorset schools funding and the impact of
schools changing into academies
·
In response to a
question it was noted that expenditure was a greater risk for the new council
than income, and this was reflected in the contingency that had been put in
place. A base budget review would be
undertaken when managers had been appointed
·
An ongoing
transformation programme would be undertaken by the new council who would also
decide on priorities for transformation moving forward
·
A base budget review
would be undertaken by the newly appointed directors and managers working with
the accountancy team. There would also
be involvement from the South West Audit Partnership (SWAP) and CIPFA
·
There was a
request for information to be included in the member budget briefing on bids
available from the government
·
It was noted that
proposals for new 75% Business Rates Pilots
in 2019/20 had been approved. Dorset had
not been included in the pilot as local government reorganisation was ongoing
·
Reference was made
to New Homes Bonus which had been built into the budget
·
A point was made
that the report and presentation had been very useful and that there could be a
level of satisfaction that there was a stable budget and that risks had been
covered. However, the point was made
that the information presented was at a very high level which presented some
issues for the committee in undertaking its overview and scrutiny role
The Interim S151 Officer
noted that an updated presentation would be provided at the forthcoming budget
briefing for all members. The committee
had made some requests for additional information and these would be
included. A copy of the presentation
provided at this meeting would be circulated to members of the committee.
Supporting documents: