Agenda item

To enable the Cabinet to consider the recommendations submitted to it by the Resources and Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee following that Committee’s scrutiny of the Cabinet’s budget proposals at its meeting held on 11 January 2023.

RESOLVED that the recommendations made by the Resources and Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee be noted and that it be further noted that the response of the Portfolio Holders thereto will be considered as part of items 10 and 11 of the agenda.

Cabinet considered the recommendations submitted to it by the Resources and Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee following that Committee’s scrutiny of the Cabinet’s budget proposals at its meeting held on 11 January 2023. That Committee had recommended that Cabinet -

“a)   requests a comprehensive piece of work be undertaken to assess the true costs of services subject to discretionary Fees and Charges (including full on-costs) to ensure that cost recovery is being achieved and that inadvertent subsidy of services from Council Tax income does not exist where those full costs should be met through relevant Fees and Charges;

b)    requests that progress be made (at pace) in the coming months to ensure that Zero Based Budgeting is applied consistently to all major net expenditure areas for the Council and that this process should involve robust challenges to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and economy of those service based budgets;

c)    makes any necessary arrangements so that, particularly while the current economic conditions prevail, strict caution is observed around estimates of costs of proposed projects/schemes (provided in support of decisions around those projects/schemes) with a view to supporting realistic budgetary allocations being made that more closely align with the costs identified for the projects/schemes following procurement in respect of those projects;

d)    records that the failure of the External Auditors (to conclude in a timely fashion the Audit of the Council’s accounts for 2020/21) is an impediment to good governance, including through this Overview and Scrutiny process, and to support the sterling efforts by the Council’s Audit Committee to address this failure with the External Auditors;

e)    concurs that, for future years, the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee, shall be requested to examine and enquire into the spend in relation to grants to statutory and voluntary sector partners and to submit its findings to the Resources & Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee in time for its budget scrutiny process;

f)     takes measures (without delay) to ensure that the Housing Stock Survey of the Council’s homes is commenced at the earliest opportunity (with a view to it being completed within 2023/24), that regular updates on the Survey be made to all Councillors and that steps be taken to dispose of vacant Council homes that have particular long term maintenance issues with a view to the disposal sum being re-invested in properties that are easier to maintain and, potentially, meeting housing need locally more closely;

g)    supports the statements to the Resources & Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee, that the New Homes Bonus for 2023/24 be held without being allocated until after the 4 May 2023 elections;

h)    proposes to Council that the shortfall between income and expenditure which would otherwise occur in 2023/24 be met by utilising the Forecast Risk Fund and that the use of the Corporate Investment Plan ‘Reserve’ and Building for the Future Use be applied to balance the budget in 2024/25 if required; and

i)     arranges that an update on the approved and pipeline schemes within/through the Corporate Investment Plan, since its creation, being submitted to the Resources & Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s meeting on 21 February 2023 to enable that Committee to undertake an enquiry into the process around that Plan.”

The Leader of the Council, on behalf of the Cabinet, thanked the Resources & Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee for their committed, exhaustive and constructive scrutiny of the Cabinet’s initial budget proposals.

Having duly considered the recommendations submitted to Cabinet by the Resources & Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee:-

It was moved by Councillor Stock OBE, seconded by Councillor Talbot and:-

RESOLVED that the recommendations made by the Resources and Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee be noted and that it be further noted that the response of the Portfolio Holders thereto will be considered as part of items 10 and 11 of the agenda.