Commission members agreed to take agenda item 8 “comments and recommendations from the overview and scrutiny panels” with this agenda item.

Caroline Holland, Director of Corporate Services, outlined the contents of the report and drew attention to the changed approach to savings targets, revisions to the provisional government funding  estimates, the increase in the proportion of council tax collection as well as the overall number of households, the updated capital programme and information on movement within the capital programme.

Caroline Holland provided additional information in response to questions:

·         the timetable of the government’s comprehensive spending review will depend on the outcome of the general election. Grant changes could impact as soon as June 2015.

·         funding for a new secondary school is included in the capital programme so that these funds will be available if needed in order to meet the council’s statutory obligation to provide school places. If alternative providers can make places available in time then the capital programme would be adjusted accordingly.

·         although the rate of increase in the growth of the primary school population has fallen, actual numbers are still increasing and it is therefore not anticipated that primary schools will have empty places

·         the service plans will be updated to provided the most recent information and these will be included in the report to the Scrutiny Panel and Commission in January. An explanation for how the risk levels are calculated will be included.

Caroline Holland undertook to provide Commission members with a diagram illustrating how the level of savings required to meet the estimated budget gap had changed since the 2014/15 budget was set by Council. ACTION: Director of Corporate Services.

Councillor Mark Allison, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, said that he had attended the Commission’s meeting primarily to listen to views expressed by members of the Commission. In response to a question he said that the council faced huge financial challenges and that the Administration would seek to protect its priority services but it wouldn’t be possible to guarantee an exemption from savings.

The Commission noted the comments made by the Overview and Scrutiny Panels at their meetings (set out in agenda item 8). Councillor Jeff Hanna, Chair of the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Panel, asked what progress had been made on expediting savings on SEN Transport. Caroline Holland described some of the savings that had already been identified, with an emphasis on identifying alternatives on a case by case basis. She stressed that the overall context was an overspend for the service.

The Commission discussed its feedback to Cabinet and:

RESOLVED to make the following comments and recommendations to Cabinet:

·        the Commission noted with concern the increase in the budget gap over the period of the Medium Term Financial Strategy from £15.2m when the 2014/15 budget was set to £32m now, but could discern no change in approach in the draft Business Plan to address the doubled deficit

·        the Commission registered its disappointment at the lack of savings proposals presented for scrutiny at this stage in the budget setting process. This meant that there was very little on which the Panels and the Commission could comment. The Commission looks forward to receiving savings proposals in the next round of scrutiny, designed to achieve a balanced budget over the term of the Medium Term Financial Strategy

·        the Commission noted the predicted overspend for 2014/15 and the difficulties being experienced in meeting the savings targets this year. It agreed that the planned use of £4m from the reserves to close this gap was appropriate in the short term but that this approach would not be sustainable in the longer term.

·        the Commission noted that the impact of the capital programme on the revenue budget is predicted to rise over the next 4-5 years. It therefore recommended that Cabinet ensure that the capital programme continues to be challenged vigorously and items removed if they are not going to be used.