Agenda item

To consider a report of the Director of Corporate Resources providing a

summary of the County Council’s 2016/17 final accounts, and to consider a report of the Chief Executive regarding the Transformation to 2019 programme. A presentation will be provided to summarise the reports from the Head of Finance. 

The Committee considered reports and a supporting presentation from the Director of Corporate Resources – Corporate Services, regarding the 2016/17 End of Year Financial Report and Transformation to 2019 (see Item 7 in the Minute Book).

Members heard that:

·         The County Council’s good financial position meant funds were available to invest in IT to support the next phase of transformation to deliver savings by 2019. The majority of the funding estimated to be needed was available; a further report would be presented to Cabinet with proposals to meet any gap in funding

·         A business case was required for IT investment to be approved; it was expected that the savings achieved would be greater than the value of the investment

·         It was planned to draw down £70 million from reserves in order to balance the budget in 2018/19

·         The County Council has a limit within which it can borrow funds, and currently Hampshire was under this limit by £250 million. The County already has investments of £513 million, and the investment strategy in place limits the maximum the County invests with any one other party, and ensures the investments are AAA rated (wherever possible) to minimise risk

·         The County Council would no longer receive any Revenue Support Grant by 2020

·         The County would need to absorb the impact of the change in national living wage, as there was no funding due from central government to cover this

·         The financial position for future years included an assumption of a 0.5% increase in council tax base

·         1% on council tax equates to approximately £5.7 million in revenue income

·         Under the transformation to 2019 programme, the same percentage reduction was expected of all departments

·         It was planned to lobby the government for changes to legislation that could help meet the savings target. The Chairman suggested that the relevant Select Committee monitor the situation for the areas identified

·         It was planned to undertake public consultation in July and August regarding the Council’s options to balance the budget in 2019, to feed in to decisions in the autumn of 2017, to enable enough lead time to deliver savings by April 2019. It was planned to close the consultation on 21 August 2017

·         There would be further consultation in future on service specific savings proposals

Cllr Collett proposed a recommendation, seconded by Cllr Westbrook:

That the planned consultation on the budget strategy be extended to cover a longer period outside of school holidays.

This was put to the vote and lost by 4 in favour, 8 against.

Cllr Collett proposed a further recommendation, seconded by Cllr Glen:

That the Policy and Resources Select Committee request that the Cabinet make representations to central government to re-consider the austerity measures impacting on local government finance, due to the challenges the reduction in budget poses for the County Council in continuing to provide public services. 

This was agreed.

The Chairman congratulated the finance team on their management of the county council’s finances, which Cllr Collett supported.

RECOMMENDED:

That the Policy and Resources Select Committee endorses the Cabinet’s recommendations to full Council set out in section 10.10 of the 2016/17 End of Year Financial Report.

That the Policy and Resources Select Committee notes the key points of the Transformation to 2019: Report No.1 Report, as summarised in section 8.1.

That the Policy and Resources Select Committee request that the Cabinet make representations to central government to re-consider the austerity measures impacting on local government finance, due to the challenges the reduction in budget poses for the County Council in continuing to provide public services.