Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Finance

Forward Plan Ref: 2019/116

Contact: Hannah Doney, Strategic Finance Manager (Assurance & Reporting) Tel: 07584 174654

 

Report by Director of Finance (CA6).

 

This report is the culmination of the Service & Resource Planning process for 2020/21 to 2023/24 and sets out the Cabinet’s proposed Corporate Plan and supporting budget, medium term financial plan, capital programme and supporting strategies.

 

The report is set out in three sections; the Corporate Plan; the revenue budget including the draft council tax precept for 2020/21 and the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) to 2023/24; and the Capital & Investment Strategy and Capital Programme including the Treasury Management Strategy.  Information outstanding at the time of the Cabinet meeting will be reported to Council when it considers the budget on 11 February 2020.

 

Cabinet’s Corporate Plan and revenue and capital budget proposals take into consideration the latest information on the council’s financial position outlined in this report and comments from the Performance Scrutiny Committee meeting on 9 January 2020.

 

The public consultation on the budget closes on 29 January 2020. The budget consultation report and any changes to the proposed budget as a result of comments received will be incorporated into the Service & Resource Planning 2020/21 – 2023/24 report to Council on 11 February 2020.

 

As final notification of some funding streams is awaited, some further changes may be made to the budget proposals ahead of full Council on 11 February 2020.

 

In relation to the Corporate Plan (Annex 1);

 

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to RECOMMEND Council to:

 

(a)       approve the Corporate Plan.

 

In relation to the Revenue Budget and Medium Term Financial Plan (Annex 2);

 

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

 

(a)       approve the Review of Charges for 2020/21;

(b)       approve the Financial Strategy for 2020/21;

(c)       approve the Earmarked Reserves and General Balances Policy Statement 2020/21; and

(d)       to delegate authority to the Leader of the Council, following consultation with the Director of Finance and the Cabinet Member for Finance, to make appropriate changes to the proposed budget.

 

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to RECOMMEND Council to:

 

(a)       approve a budget for 2020/21 and a Medium Term Financial Plan to 2023/24, based on the proposals set out in Annex 2 – Appendix 2;

(b)       approve a council tax requirement (precept) for 2020/21;

(c)       approve a 2020/21 council tax for band D equivalent properties; and

(d)       approve the virement arrangements to operate within the approved budget.

 

In relation to the Capital & Investment Strategy and Capital Programme (Annex 3);

 

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

 

(a)       approve the Pupil Place Plan 2019/20 – 2023/24; and

(b)       approve the Highways Asset Management Strategy for 2019/20 – 2023/24.

 

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to RECOMMEND Council to approve:

 

(a)       the Capital & Investment Strategy for 2020/21 - 2029/30 including:

(i)         the Investment Strategy;

(ii)       the Prudential Indicators; and

(iii)     the Minimum Revenue Provision Methodology Statement;

(b)       the new capital proposals for inclusion in the Capital Programme as set out in Annex 3 – Appendix C;

(c)       the Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy for 2020/21 incorporated in the Capital & Investment Strategy;

(d)       to continue to delegate the authority to withdraw or advance additional funds to/from external fund managers to the Treasury Management Strategy Team;

(e)       that any further changes required to the 2020/21 Treasury Management Strategy be delegated to the Director of Finance in consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Cabinet Member for Finance;

(f)         the Treasury Management Prudential Indicators; and

(g)       The Specified Investment and Non Specified Investment instruments as set out in Annex 3 - Appendix F, paragraphs 47 to 52.

 

The Cabinet considered the final report in the series of the Service & Resource Planning process for 2020/21 to 2023/24.  The report was set out in three sections; the Corporate Plan; the revenue budget including the draft council tax precept for 2020/21 and the Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP) to 2023/24; and the Capital & Investment Strategy and Capital Programme including the Treasury Management Strategy.  Information outstanding at the time of the Cabinet meeting would be reported to Council when it considers the budget on 11 February 2020.

 

Cabinet’s Corporate Plan and revenue and capital budget proposals took into consideration the latest information on the council’s financial position outlined in this report and comments from the Performance Scrutiny Committee meeting on 9 January 2020.

 

The public consultation on the budget closed on 29 January 2020. The budget consultation report and any changes to the proposed budget as a result of comments received would be incorporated into the Service & Resource Planning 2020/21 – 2023/24 report to Council on 11 February 2020.

 

Councillor Glynis Phillips, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance welcomed the additional funding allocated to children’s and adult social care, although noted it was currently for one year only pending a number of reviews, and explained the importance of knowing the sustainable funding position for as many years as possible.

 

The Labour Group remained concerned about the continued use of one-off financial grants allocated by councillors and felt the money should be used to directly support the work of the Council. When initially challenged on this use of funds the argument presented was that there was no guarantee of funds being available beyond that year. So, recruiting staff was not considered an option because of the short-term nature of the known funding streams. This was not the current situation and she urged the Cabinet to use the funding to recruit more staff to to reduce the number of children in care or put more funds into Public Health to (for example) reduce the number of people dependent on drugs and alcohol.

 

In relation to the Review of Charges she noted that it still referred to developers making a contribution to the cost of officers providing advice and attending meetings. The Labour Group would support  the strategic objective of moving to charging actual costs.

 

On the Capital & Investment Strategy, she noted that during 2021/2022 there would be a fundamental review. Given that in the next financial year 2020/2021 only essential requirements were built into the programme, the group felt that should be capacity for this review to take place next year and not the year after.  In relation to 145 she questioned what allocations had been removed and whether they had been removed permanently or reassigned to another year?

 

The Group were keeping an eye on the current £18.4m shortfall, to ensure that the amount did not drift upwards without some really good reasons.

She echoed Performance Scrutiny’s support given the Director of Public Health’s approach to use health inequalities data to inform service provision.

 

She requested that Councillors be made aware of any changes following the Final Local Government Finance Settlement as soon as possible.

 

Councillor Bartholomew, Cabinet Member for Finance thanked Councillor Phillips for her useful comments.  He agreed that sustainable funding was key and that is was important to know how much they had got and what they could spend.  He continued to press Government for a medium-term approach, rather than the year on year approach which was unsatisfactory.  In relation to Developer Charges he agreed that fees needed to be investigated further, although there were some regulations around market norms.

 

The £18.5 millions shortfall looked big, but in the scheme of things, across the years was not very much, but they would be keeping an eye on it.

 

Councillor Gray, Cabinet Member for Local Communities expressed the importance of the Councillor Priority fund, in that all services that were supported was doing the work of the Council and spread work County Wide.

 

Councillor Constance, Cabinet Member for Environment endorsed the comments by Councillor Gray, in that the County Priority Fund took small funding to important projects in small areas, where as otherwise they may feel ignored by the County Council.

 

Councillor Liz Brighouse, Chairman of the Performance Scrutiny Committee read of the statement by the Performance Scrutiny Committee included in the papers at Annex 2, Appendix 10.

 

Councillor Bartholomew welcomed the comments, which had been broadly supportive from the Scrutiny Committee and Briefing, which he had attended.  He assured Councillor Brighouse that the comments would be considered, in particular the comments around evidence, feedback and monitoring.

 

Councillor Stratford, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health thanked the Committee for their comments particularly around Public Health where they would be taking a more proactive view around prevention and equalities, though those issues were about environment as well as public health.

 

In relation to Adult Social Care, the new Director was working more closely with Health colleagues to address issues and the two Directors responsible for this area were working more closely than ever, which would see great benefits.

 

Councillor Corkin, Cabinet Member for Cherwell Partnership explained that as transformation moved into business as usual there would be a greater need and role for Scrutiny.  Councillors were collectively responsible for holding the paid service to account, so he welcomed the highlighting of this issue.

 

Councillor Harrod, Cabinet Member for Children & Family Services thanked the Committee for their support around the Family Safeguarding Model.

 

Councillor Liz Brighouse commented that there was a need to ensure that Governors and Trustees of academies were scrutinising attainment and safeguarding within schools.

 

Councillor Lindsay-Gale thanked and supported the Committee for their comments.  She had written to the Secretary of State on several issues and would continue to do so, as due to the way things were currently set it, it made it very difficult for the Council to have any influence at all.  In relation to being able to scrutinise investments that were being made, she reminded members that there was a SEND Performance Board which tracked every single Health Care Plan.  She would ensure that the data would be available to members.

 

Councillor Bartholomew, in moving the recommendations of the report emphasised that the Budget before the Cabinet was an "investment budget" in public services to prevent problems before they happened by supporting struggling families so fewer children came into care; investing in community support for older and disabled people to help them live independently; designing places that help people stay healthy by encouraging cycling and walking, carbon emissions had halved since 2008 – but the target was zero carbon by 2030.

 

Funding for children and adult social services would increase by £30 million next year, including an extra £8.1 million from the government. This money was needed to support an increase in adult social care needs for both older and disabled people, as well as the increasing number of child protection cases, which had grown in line with national trends.

 

The budget proposals also included investment in infrastructure across the county, including an extra £50 million for new and existing schools over ten years, with most of the funding coming from housing developers to meet the need for more pupil places in Oxfordshire. We propose to spend £30 million in 2020/21 from the capital budget on repairs to roads, bridges, drainage and footways across Oxfordshire’s towns and villages, with major schemes scheduled in Banbury, Abingdon and Witney.  New funding of £3 million per year was proposed to improve local road safety and accessibility, including new pedestrian crossings, improved junctions and better bus stop facilities. These measures were designed to encourage walking and cycling as part of the council’s commitment to improving air quality and active lifestyles.

 

The county council continued to face long-term financial pressures, with government having steadily reduced funding for local authorities since 2010. At the same time, more people had needed support from social services. To ensure we can continue to invest in services and infrastructure, while meeting the needs of the most vulnerable people in Oxfordshire, there was a proposed increase in Council Tax by 1.99 per cent, with a further two percent ‘to pay for the growing number of people requiring adult social services.  He commended the Budget to Cabinet.

 

Councillor Heathcoat, Deputy Leader of the Council introduced the Corporate Plan.  She welcomed the views from the Performance Scrutiny Committee, which she had attended.  A cross-part Working Group had been set to work on the plan.  She thanked all the members on the Corporate Plan.  The Plan had also gone out to all Members.  The Plan had been refreshed to concentrate on the Council’s priorities, to make it more accessible to residents, staff and stakeholders. 

 

The Plan was a core document for the Council and set the Strategic direction.  The plan reflected the council’s vision of Thriving communities for all, together with the priorities and how they would be achieved, including how progress against them would be monitored.  Climate Action, Health Place Shaping and working in partnership with Cherwell District Council was well noted in the Plan.

 

Councillor Stratford welcomed the new format of the report.

 

Councillor Bartholomew requested that an explanatory note be added for clarification to the Investment Advisory Panel in Appendix B for when roles were held by the same person.

 

RESOLVED: (subject to the revised Annex 2 – Appendix 8 set out the Addenda)

 

In relation to the Corporate Plan (Annex 1);

 

Cabinet RECOMMENDED Council to:

 

(a)      approve the Corporate Plan.

 

In relation to the Revenue Budget and Medium-Term Financial Plan (Annex 2);

 

Cabinet:

 

(a)      approved the Review of Charges for 2020/21;

(b)      approved the Financial Strategy for 2020/21;

(c)       approved the Earmarked Reserves and General Balances Policy Statement 2020/21; and

(d)      delegated authority to the Leader of the Council, following consultation with the Director of Finance and the Cabinet Member for Finance, to make appropriate changes to the proposed budget.

 

Cabinet RECOMMENDED Council to:

 

(a)      approve a budget for 2020/21 and a Medium-Term Financial Plan to 2023/24, based on the proposals set out in Annex 2 – Appendix 2;

(b)      approve a council tax requirement (precept) for 2020/21;

(c)       approve a 2020/21 council tax for band D equivalent properties; and

(d)      approve the virement arrangements to operate within the approved budget.

 

In relation to the Capital & Investment Strategy and Capital Programme (Annex 3);

 

Cabinet:

 

(a)      approved the Pupil Place Plan 2019/20 – 2023/24; and

(b)      approved the Highways Asset Management Strategy for 2019/20 – 2023/24.

 

Cabinet RECOMMENDED Council to approve:

 

(a)      the Capital & Investment Strategy for 2020/21 - 2029/30 including:

(i)        the Investment Strategy;

(ii)       the Prudential Indicators; and

(iii)      the Minimum Revenue Provision Methodology Statement;

(b)      the new capital proposals for inclusion in the Capital Programme as set out in Annex 3 – Appendix C;

(c)       the Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy for 2020/21 incorporated in the Capital & Investment Strategy;

(d)      to continue to delegate the authority to withdraw or advance additional funds to/from external fund managers to the Treasury Management Strategy Team;

(e)      that any further changes required to the 2020/21 Treasury Management Strategy be delegated to the Director of Finance in consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Cabinet Member for Finance;

(f)        the Treasury Management Prudential Indicators; and

(g)      The Specified Investment and Non-Specified Investment instruments as set out in Annex 3 - Appendix F, paragraphs 47 to 52.