The Committee will receive a presentation that will provide an outline of the approach in prioritising resources over the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) from 2019-20 to 2020-21.

The Chair thanked Councillor Candida Ronald (Cabinet Member for Resources and the Voluntary Sector) and Kevin Bartle (Interim Divisional Director of Finance, Procurement and Audit) for attending tonight’s Overview and Scrutiny meeting to provide an update on the Council’s finances as Members reviewed the Medium Term Financial Strategy report. The main points of the discussions on the report may be summarised as follows:

The Committee:

·         Expressed concern by the sizable savings that the Council now needs to achieve and indicated that it would want to see (i) a more robust approach to developing saving proposals; and (ii) regular updates on the delivery of savings

·         Noted that some savings have not been as robustly developed as they should have been;

·         Felt that where the Council has committed to delivering savings that more work needs to be undertaken on (i) validation and (ii) time frames;

·         Considered ways in which the Council can achieve the saving targets (e.g. recovery plans; an agency staffing panel and a review of all non-essential expenditure;

·         Noted that it has an important role to play to ensure that targets are met by (i) continuing to question officers about the savings members have agreed; and (ii) maintaining an oversight of the Councils recovery plans;

·         Expressed concerns regarding the timing of the budget consultation process and indicated that it would like this to start earlier to allow for better engagement with residents and the scrutiny process;

·         Was pleased to hear that this is something which is currently being considered;

·         Noted that some savings cannot now be delivered as they are factually inaccurate and new savings are now required;

·         Noted that there is a consistent review of  demographic growth to ensure that it reflects the actual situation (e.g. Impact on the increases in receipts from Council Tax);

·         Felt it was important to have properly defined longer term savings than before.

The Chair Moved and it was:

RESOLVED

·         Placed on record its concerns regarding the timing of the budget consultation process and indicated that it would like this to start earlier to allow for better engagement with residents and the scrutiny process.