Agenda and minutes

Councillors Armitage, Bonner, Carter, Crabbe, Darke, Fooks, Mrs Fulljames, Gearing, Harbour, Heathcoat, Hutchinson, Lilly, Malik, Waine, Wilmshurst,

Members are reminded that they must declare their interests orally at the meeting and specify (a) the nature of the interest and (b) which items on the agenda are the relevant items. This applies also to items where members have interests by virtue of their membership of a district council in Oxfordshire.

The following declarations of interest were made:

Brighouse – Item 6 - Personal Interest: Husband is a Non-Executive Director of Research Machines plc.

Mallon – Item 6 - Personal Interest: Member of Thames Valley Police Authority.

Patrick – Item 6 - Personal Interest: Member of Thames Valley Police Authority.

Roz Smith – Item 6 - Personal Interest: Member of the Friends of Bury Knowle Park, Headington.

Tilley – Item 6 - Personal Interest: Son-in-law is an employee of Research Machines plc.

The Chairman reported as follows:

(i)                 Receipt of a Letter from the Chairman of Cumbria County Council thanking Oxfordshire County Council and residents for their concern and sympathy.

(ii)               Woodeaton Manor School had won the national consumer knowledge quiz for youngsters with learning difficulties. Council sent their congratulations

(iii)             Staff Sergeant Brett George Linley, from 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment The Royal Logistic Corps, based at Vauxhall Barracks, Didcot had been killed in an explosion during a counter-IED operation in the Nahr-e Saraj District of Helmand province on Saturday, 17 July 2010.  Council observed a minute of silence in memory of Sergeant Brett George Linley and all military personnel killed in action.

(a)       To appoint Councillor Jerry Pattersonas the Voting Co-opted Member District Council Representative on the Pension Fund Committee.  

(b)       To make any changes to the membership of the Cabinet, scrutiny and other committees on the nomination of political groups.

(a)               To appoint Councillor Jerry Pattersonas the Voting Co-opted Member District Council Representative on the Pension Fund Committee.

Agreed (nem con)

Report by Assistant Chief Executive & Chief Finance Officer (CC6).

The Financial Monitoring Report to Cabinet on 20 July 2010 sets out the impact of national in-year reductions in grant allocations for Revenue and Capital on the Council.   A separate Service & Resource Planning report, the first for 2011/12, provides an update on the changes to our planning assumptions over the medium term.  

Under the Council’s Financial Regulations, Council approval is required for virements larger than £0.5m or where they represent a change in policy.    The report therefore includes recommendations to approve the virements underpinning the proposed carry forwards from 2009/10 for Children, Young People & Families and Social & Community Services.

Cabinet also agreed that for transparency Council should also approve the changes relating to the reduction in revenue grant funding in 2010/11.  The report sets out details of the proposed reductions and implications thereof, and details other changes to note.     

Subject to the decisions of Cabinet on 20 July 2010, Council is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)               note the report;

(b)              approve the virements larger than £0.5m and the associated carry forwards from 2009/10 for Children, Young People & Families and Social & Community Services;

(c)               approve the reductions in revenue grant funded expenditure and related virements as set out in Annex 2b;

(d)              approve the deferral of capital expenditure originally programmed for 2010/11 as set out in paragraph 19;

(e)               note the reduction in capital grant funding and associated reductions in expenditure as set out in paragraph 23;

(f)                 agree that any further changes to specific capital grant funding in 2010/11 should be made in accordance with the notification; and

(g)              agree that any further urgent changes associated with reductions in specific grants that are not ringfenced should be delegated to the Chief Executive and Chief Finance Officer after consultation with the Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Finance & Property.   

The Cabinet Member for Finance stressed that this additional meeting had been called for Council to debate and agree the proposed 2010/11 In-Year grant reductions and requests for virements arising out of the 2009-10 carry-forward for Children, Young People & Families and Social & Community Services directorates.  The important headline figures were that the provisional Directorate Revenue outturn was a net underspend of £1.821m or -0.48% variation to the final approved budget of £378.836m.  On the usual basis of underspends being applied to reduce overspends as first call, directorates had requested net underspends of £1.046m be carried forward to 2010/11.  Some of the virements were more than £0.5m and it was the approval of these virements that were before Council.

With regard to reductions for 2010/11, the process began on 24 May 2010, when the Coalition Government announced broad savings of £6bn for four Government Departments to be made in-year; officers had heard on 10 June most of the details of the savings expected of Oxfordshire in 2010/11.  Further details were then given during the following days and on 22 June the Government’s Emergency budget outlined the reductions to Departmental budgets for the whole of the Parliament to 2015.  The scale of the previous Government‘s budgetary deficit and borrowing was beyond anyone’s worst nightmare and would require draconian remedies.

The grant reductions proposed were to be from the Area Based Grant (ABG), capital grants, Performance Reward Grant and the Local Authority Business Growth Incentives (LABGI); the total for these reductions was £10.882m.  Later a further £0.166m of Specific Grant for Play Pathfinder and Contact Point had been added.  The Revenue reductions fell mainly on Children, Young People & Families directorate because its income included so much grant funding including ABG and Specific Grant; the capital reductions were mostly swingeing reductions in transport spent.  LABGI was effectively dead although the Council had sufficient in hand to meet this year’s commitments.  There was also the clawback of reward grant.  Directorates had tried to meet their expected reductions in a fair and sensible manner, but the Council had just eight months of 2010/11 in which to make these savings.  The Cabinet Member hoped Council would agree the recommendation so that steps necessary to achieve these savings can start immediately.

The Cabinet decided that, apart from a limited number of schemes needed to meet this autumn’s primary school numbers, and Prudential Borrowing schemes, there should be a full review of the capital programme and a moratorium while that review took place.  There has clearly been misunderstanding about the motives for this period of review.  The review came about because of a growing gap between capital schemes in the programme and the money the Council had or could anticipate to pay for them, a gap which can be computed at around £100m over the next five years.  The schemes that were held were not scrapped; but deferred.  A review over the summer would inform the Council how it could bring the programme and the resources into balance.

The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 76/10