Caroline Holland, Director of Corporate Services, introduced the report. She drew the task group’s attention to  the additional appendices on progress on savings for periods 9 and 10, changes to the capital programme, update on debt position, customer and client receipts and movement in reserves.

Members asked a number of questions about the New Homes Bonus and Cabinet’s decision to use some of this for a Savings Mitigation Fund of £1.3m.

Caroline Holland explained that the New Homes Bonus is a grant from DCLG that is linked to the number of new homes built that are eligible for council tax. The funding was originally given over a six year period and DCLG are currently consulting on reducing this to 4 years. It is not clear whether there will be future tranches of funding. It is a complex calculation and therefore difficult to predict. For example, topslicing arrangements have changed – last year just over £1m was topsliced for the GLA but there has been no topslicing this year. Notification of the provisional settlement was made available to the council on 22 December and was finalised on 10 February 2016.

Caroline Holland said that the impact  of the establishment of the Savings Mitigation Fund on reserves and on the budget gap will be shown in the report to Budget Council on 2 March.

Members made comments and asked questions relating to the departmental summaries:

Corporate Services

Noted and welcomed the underspend.

Environment and Regeneration

Members expressed concerns regarding the Greenspaces budget, particularly the staffing overspend on the firework displays and Wimbledon fortnight given that these are predictable annual events plus the loss of £56k on the classics in the park event compared to the £90k surplus that was originally forecast. Members suggested that, if events such as classics in the park were to be held in future, consideration should be given to sharing risk and profit with a private sector partner.

RESOLVED: to look at the Greenspaces budget in more detail at the task group’s next meeting through a report that will set out the budget for 2015/16 and for 2016/17 in detail, explain how the budget is being managed and what has been learned from previous overspends.

Children Schools and Families

Noted that a report on SEN transport will be presented to the next meeting of the task group.

Note the underspend on the Dedicated Schools Grant.

Community and Housing

In response to members’ concerns about delayed hospital discharge, Caroline Holland said that about £90k had been paid in fines and that the main issue was difficulty in finding providers, particularly for people who require two carers at any one time.

Caroline Holland said that analysis of processes and payments and the impact of proposed savings was being carried out. She is also seeking information on the average costs of care for different age groups and the extent to which price reductions are still achievable from providers and the work that is being done to continue to negotiate keen prices.

RESOLVED: to receive information at a future meeting (November) to examine the population estimates on which the adult social care budget is based in order to better understand the demand on services.