The Committee will receive an update report from Cllr Ronald, Cabinet Member for Resources and the Voluntary Sector and Neville Murton, Acting Corporate Director of Resources – With particular reference to the Cabinet Agenda Item 6.1 and Item 6.2

The Committee received an update report from Cllr Ronald, Cabinet Member for Resources and the Voluntary Sector and Neville Murton, Acting Corporate Director of Resources – With particular reference to the Cabinet for 30^th January, 2019.

The discussions on the report are outlined below:

The Committee noted:

–        This report presented the final budget proposals that will be recommended for Full Council approval on the 20th February. It was noted that the assumptions set out in last year’s MTFS for 2019-20 have been reviewed and updated to allow Members to agree a balanced budget and Council Tax requirement for that year;

–        That announcements that have been made about Government funding for the Council in the Chancellor’s Budget and the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement require a robust and timely response to enable a balanced budget to be set;

–        That the Council is in the fourth and final year of the Governments ‘guaranteed settlement’;

–        That a Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) covering the entirety of the resources available to the Council is considered to be the best way that resource prioritisation and allocation decisions can be considered and agreed in a way that provides a stable and considered approach to service delivery and takes into account relevant risks and uncertainty;

–        As the Council develops its detailed proposals it must continue to keep under review those key financial assumptions which underpin the Council’s MTFS; in particular as the Council becomes ever more dependent on locally raised sources of income through the Council Tax and retained business rates these elements become fundamental elements of its approach and strategies;

–        The Council secures value for money through competitive tendering in terms of Capital Schemes;

–        Detailed impact assessments would happen upon implementation’

–        That the Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) is utilised and is embedded in various processes and officers need to consider if an EqIA is appropriate; and

–        The Council needs to look at a package of incentive/charges on car use and the Mayor indicated that he would value from an oversight by Scrutiny.

In conclusion, Councillor Ullah thanked Cllr Ronald and Neville Murton for their presentation.