Agenda item
BUDGET AND COUNCIL TAX 2013/14
Decision:
Mayor Lutfur Rahman introduced, and Councillor Alibor Choudhury moved, the budget proposals of the Mayor and Executive as set out in the agenda pack. Councillor Ohid Ahmed seconded the proposals.
Four amendments were tabled and moved as follows:
(i) Amendment proposed by Councillor Carlo Gibbs and seconded by Councillor Joshua Peck (as attached at Appendix A to this decision sheet);
(ii) Amendment proposed by Councillor David Snowdon and seconded by Councillor Zara Davis (attached at Appendix B);
(iii) Amendment proposed by Councillor Oliur Rahman and seconded by Councillor Shafiqul Haque (attached at Appendix C);
(iv) Amendment proposed by Councillor Rania Khan and seconded by Councillor Abdul Asad (attached at Appendix D).
The Mayor amended his budget proposals by accepting in full the amendments proposed by Councillors Oliur Rahman and Rania Khan.
Following the debate the Speaker adjourned the meeting at 22:08 to allow officers to consider the effect of the two accepted amendments on the remaining amendments. The meeting reconvened at 22:17.
Councillor Carlo Gibbs and Councillor Joshua Peck altered their amendment to include an additional bullet point:
- To delete the figure of ‘£150k’ in the amendment moved by Councillor Rania Khan for ‘’events’ and replace this with ‘£39k’.
Following further debate the amendment proposed by Councillor Carlo Gibbs was put to the vote and was agreed.
The amendment proposed by Councillor David Snowdon was then put to the vote and was defeated.
The Speaker then adjourned the meeting at 22:43 to allow for further officer advice. The meeting reconvened at 22:50.
The substantive budget proposals as amended were then put to the vote and were agreed.
DECISION
This Council notes:
· That between the Chancellor’s Emergency Budget in 2010 and 2017/18, the Council’s General Fund budget will have been cut by 50%;
· The Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan is showing a black hole of £39m in 2015/16, £24m of which is unfunded, and a deficit of at least £55m is anticipated in 2016/17;
· By 2015/16, Council reserves will be brought down to their lowest advisable level of £20m;
· Many of the Mayor’s biggest spending commitments– including Free School Meals, THEOs, additional cleaning, Faith Buildings Fund, Educational Award and Council Tax Benefit – are only funded up to the election;
· Continuing these services after their current funding ceases would increase the council’s black hole by over £6m each year;
· In order to fund additional spending, the Mayor has initiated further frontline cuts, including a 5% reduction of the staffing budgets in Adults Health and Wellbeing and Children Schools and Families directorates, placing further pressure on frontline staff;
· Closing this black hole would require the equivalent of a £600 per household Council Tax increase or cutting in half the services provided to the elderly and disabled in the Borough;
· The Labour Group has been asking the Mayor for over a year to explain how he plans to close this financial black hole over which he has presided.
This Council believes:
· It is the duty of the Council to manage its finances efficiently, delivering a balanced budget to ensure long term stability of services for residents;
· In facing these cuts the residents of this borough deserve openness and honesty about how those elected to represent them will deal with this issue;
· The Mayor has lost control of the Council’s finances and has no proposals - such as an invest to save strategy, star chamber programme or review of service - to deal with this black hole;
· Plans to tackle the deficit will take time to bring online and, in order to be delivered in 2015, will have to be agreed by council a long time before then;
· The Mayor is failing to show leadership in the face of the Government’s cuts by ignoring the Council’s precarious financial state until after the next election.
This Council further believes:
· It is wrong for the Mayor to continue spending significant amounts of public money on self-publicity such as East End Life, political mailings to residents, banners with his face on and other communication spending;
· It is wrong for the Mayor to increased spending on his office by 65% to £700,000, including £296k for advisors, when cuts to frontline staffing budgets elsewhere in the organisation are taking place. Particularly as he has a Cabinet that is supposed to advise him on these issues;
· It is wrong that the Mayor continues to hire a Mercedes and driver at significant cost to the Council;
This council therefore resolves:
1. To adopt the budget motion as set out in the agenda for the meeting subject to the amendments accepted by the Mayor as attached at Appendices C and D and further amended as follows:-
2. To delete funding of £1.214m from the budget used to fund East End Life, delivering a saving of £433k by:
o Reducing funding available for public notices from £267,000 to £100,000, sufficient to support the provision of statutory advertising in local newspapers, tendering a long term contract in order to secure the best rates;
o Reducing the funding of £176,000 for the advertising of choice based lettings to £50,000, sufficient to fund a provision that can be made available on a weekly basis in each housing office, leisure centre and one-stop shop in the borough, as well as online, to be managed by the lettings team;
o To cut departmental budgets by £143,000, to reduce their general advertising spend allocated in previous years to East End Life;
3. To delete the funding of £296k for Mayor’s Advisors;
4. Not allocate the £1.8m of unallocated funds set out in Section 3 of Cabinet Report Wednesday 13th February to any other provision;
5. Use the £200,000 of available capital spending to free up £200,000 of previously capitalised revenue funding that will be ring fenced as a contingency fund to support the deletion of the budget used for East End Life.
6. To ring fence the savings and unallocated funds resulting from the above and set out in the below table, into a ring-fenced reserve to support a reduction in the council’s black hole in 2015/16;
7. To place a general restriction on the council that all virements outside of the agreed budget framework above £200,000 must be agreed by full council (* see note below)
Saving |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
Total saving |
Unallocated Funding |
£1.8m
|
|
£1.8m |
Saving from statutory advertising |
£167k |
£167k |
£334k |
Saving from Choice Based Lettings advertising |
£126k |
£126k |
£252k |
Reduce departmental budgets (advertising spend) |
£143k |
£143k |
£286k |
Reallocation of Capital Funding |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Mayor’s Advisors |
£296k |
£296k |
£592k |
Total |
£2.532m |
£732k |
£3.264m |
8. To delete the figure of ‘£150k’ in the amendment moved by Councillor Rania Khan for ‘’events’ and replace this with ‘£39k’.
(* Note: Proposal to impose a limit of £200,000 above which virements must be agreed by Full Council – Officers advise that this matter cannot be considered at Budget Council as procedures and regulations make it clear that Budget Council is for financial matters not constitutional matters. The Constitution requires that constitutional changes are referred to General Purposes Committee with full officer comments in order that all parties can be consulted. It would then be referred back to Full Council at a later date)
Outcome of meeting
The Service Head, Democratic Services advised the meeting that as the Council had agreed budget proposals that were different from the Mayor’s proposals, the statutory dispute resolution process would come into operation. The Council was required to inform the Mayor of its objections to his budget proposals and set a period of at least five working days, commencing on the day after the day on which the Mayor is notified of the objections, within which the Mayor should reconsider his proposals in the light of those objections and resubmit them for consideration at a second Budget Council Meeting.
The Service Head informed Members that the second Budget Council Meeting would be held on Thursday 7th March 2013 at 7.30 p.m.
DECISION
That the Mayor and Executive be informed of the Council’s objections to their budget proposals as set out in the decision above; be requested to reconsider their proposals in the light of those objections; and submit revised proposals in accordance with the Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules for consideration at a further Budget Council Meeting to be held on 7th March 2013.
Minutes:
Mayor Lutfur Rahman introduced, and Councillor Alibor Choudhury moved, the budget proposals of the Mayor and Executive as set out in the agenda pack. Councillor Ohid Ahmed seconded the proposals.
Four amendments were tabled and moved as follows:
(i) Amendment proposed by Councillor Carlo Gibbs and seconded by Councillor Joshua Peck (as attached at Appendix A to these minutes);
(ii) Amendment proposed by Councillor David Snowdon and seconded by Councillor Zara Davis (attached at Appendix B);
(iii) Amendment proposed by Councillor Oliur Rahman and seconded by Councillor Shafiqul Haque (attached at Appendix C);
(iv) Amendment proposed by Councillor Rania Khan and seconded by Councillor Abdul Asad (attached at Appendix D).
The Mayor amended his budget proposals by accepting in full the amendments proposed by Councillors Oliur Rahman and Rania Khan.
Following the debate the Speaker adjourned the meeting at 22:08 to allow officers to consider the effect of the two accepted amendments on the remaining amendments. The meeting reconvened at 22:17.
Councillor Carlo Gibbs and Councillor Joshua Peck altered their amendment to include an additional bullet point:
- To delete the figure of ‘£150k’ in the amendment moved by Councillor Rania Khan for ‘’events’ and replace this with ‘£39k’.
Following further debate the amendment proposed by Councillor Carlo Gibbs was put to the vote and was agreed.
The amendment proposed by Councillor David Snowdon was then put to the vote and was defeated.
The Speaker then adjourned the meeting at 22:43 to allow for further officer advice. The meeting reconvened at 22:50.
The substantive budget proposals as amended were then put to the vote and were agreed.
RESOLVED
This Council notes:
· That between the Chancellor’s Emergency Budget in 2010 and 2017/18, the Council’s General Fund budget will have been cut by 50%;
· The Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan is showing a black hole of £39m in 2015/16, £24m of which is unfunded, and a deficit of at least £55m is anticipated in 2016/17;
· By 2015/16, Council reserves will be brought down to their lowest advisable level of £20m;
· Many of the Mayor’s biggest spending commitments– including Free School Meals, THEOs, additional cleaning, Faith Buildings Fund, Educational Award and Council Tax Benefit – are only funded up to the election;
· Continuing these services after their current funding ceases would increase the council’s black hole by over £6m each year;
· In order to fund additional spending, the Mayor has initiated further frontline cuts, including a 5% reduction of the staffing budgets in Adults Health and Wellbeing and Children Schools and Families directorates, placing further pressure on frontline staff;
· Closing this black hole would require the equivalent of a £600 per household Council Tax increase or cutting in half the services provided to the elderly and disabled in the Borough;
· The Labour Group has been asking the Mayor for over a year to explain how he plans to close this financial black hole over which he has presided.
This Council believes:
· It is the duty of the Council to manage its finances efficiently, delivering a balanced budget to ensure long term stability of services for residents;
· In facing these cuts the residents of this borough deserve openness and honesty about how those elected to represent them will deal with this issue;
· The Mayor has lost control of the Council’s finances and has no proposals - such as an invest to save strategy, star chamber programme or review of service - to deal with this black hole;
· Plans to tackle the deficit will take time to bring online and, in order to be delivered in 2015, will have to be agreed by council a long time before then;
· The Mayor is failing to show leadership in the face of the Government’s cuts by ignoring the Council’s precarious financial state until after the next election.
This Council further believes:
· It is wrong for the Mayor to continue spending significant amounts of public money on self-publicity such as East End Life, political mailings to residents, banners with his face on and other communication spending;
· It is wrong for the Mayor to increased spending on his office by 65% to £700,000, including £296k for advisors, when cuts to frontline staffing budgets elsewhere in the organisation are taking place. Particularly as he has a Cabinet that is supposed to advise him on these issues;
· It is wrong that the Mayor continues to hire a Mercedes and driver at significant cost to the Council;
This council therefore resolves:
1. To adopt the budget motion as set out in the agenda for the meeting subject to the amendments accepted by the Mayor as attached at Appendices C and D and further amended as follows:-
2. To delete funding of £1.214m from the budget used to fund East End Life, delivering a saving of £433k by:
o Reducing funding available for public notices from £267,000 to £100,000, sufficient to support the provision of statutory advertising in local newspapers, tendering a long term contract in order to secure the best rates;
o Reducing the funding of £176,000 for the advertising of choice based lettings to £50,000, sufficient to fund a provision that can be made available on a weekly basis in each housing office, leisure centre and one-stop shop in the borough, as well as online, to be managed by the lettings team;
o To cut departmental budgets by £143,000, to reduce their general advertising spend allocated in previous years to East End Life;
3. To delete the funding of £296k for Mayor’s Advisors;
4. Not allocate the £1.8m of unallocated funds set out in Section 3 of Cabinet Report Wednesday 13th February to any other provision;
5. Use the £200,000 of available capital spending to free up £200,000 of previously capitalised revenue funding that will be ring fenced as a contingency fund to support the deletion of the budget used for East End Life.
6. To ring fence the savings and unallocated funds resulting from the above and set out in the below table, into a ring-fenced reserve to support a reduction in the council’s black hole in 2015/16;
7. To place a general restriction on the council that all virements outside of the agreed budget framework above £200,000 must be agreed by full council (* see note below)
Saving |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
Total saving |
Unallocated Funding |
£1.8m
|
|
£1.8m |
Saving from statutory advertising |
£167k |
£167k |
£334k |
Saving from Choice Based Lettings advertising |
£126k |
£126k |
£252k |
Reduce departmental budgets (advertising spend) |
£143k |
£143k |
£286k |
Reallocation of Capital Funding |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Mayor’s Advisors |
£296k |
£296k |
£592k |
Total |
£2.532m |
£732k |
£3.264m |
8. To delete the figure of ‘£150k’ in the amendment moved by Councillor Rania Khan for ‘’events’ and replace this with ‘£39k’.
[* Note: Proposal to impose a limit of £200,000 above which virements must be agreed by Full Council – Officers advise that this matter cannot be considered at Budget Council as procedures and regulations make it clear that Budget Council is for financial matters not constitutional matters. The Constitution requires that constitutional changes are referred to General Purposes Committee with full officer comments in order that all parties can be consulted. It would then be referred back to Full Council at a later date.]
Outcome of meeting
The Service Head, Democratic Services advised the meeting that as the Council had agreed budget proposals that were different from the Mayor’s proposals, the statutory dispute resolution process would come into operation. The Council was required to inform the Mayor of its objections to his budget proposals and set a period of at least five working days, commencing on the day after the day on which the Mayor is notified of the objections, within which the Mayor should reconsider his proposals in the light of those objections and resubmit them for consideration at a second Budget Council Meeting.
The Service Head informed Members that the second Budget Council Meeting would be held on Thursday 7th March 2013 at 7.30 p.m.
RESOLVED
That the Mayor and Executive be informed of the Council’s objections to their budget proposals as set out in the decision above; be requested to reconsider their proposals in the light of those objections; and submit revised proposals in accordance with the Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules for consideration at a further Budget Council Meeting to be held on 7th March 2013.
Supporting documents:
- Tabled amendments - cover sheet 27 02 13, item 5. PDF 42 KB
- Budget Amendment 2013 Labour, item 5. PDF 61 KB
- Budget Amendment 2013 Labour - Officer Comments, item 5. PDF 63 KB
- Budget Amendment 2013 Conservative, item 5. PDF 84 KB
- Budget Amendment 2013 Conservative - Officer Comments, item 5. PDF 162 KB
- Budget Amendment 2013 Cllr Oliur Rahman, item 5. PDF 44 KB
- Budget Amendment 2013 Cllr Oliur Rahman - Officer Comments, item 5. PDF 40 KB
- Budget Amendment 2013 Cllr Rania Khan, item 5. PDF 71 KB
- Budget Amendment 2013 Cllr Rania Khan - Officer Comments, item 5. PDF 53 KB