Agenda item

To receive the draft budget for 2017-18 and Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) 2017-20 to be presented to County Council on 9^th February 2016. 

(Item 6 – Report of Mr John Simmonds, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance & Procurement and Andy Wood, Corporate Director of Finance and Procurement).

Cabinet received the draft budget for 2017-18 and Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) 2017-20 which was to be presented to County Council on 9 February 2017. 

Mr John Simmonds, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement introduced the item for members.  In particular he referred to the following:

• That Cabinet should have regard to any amendments arising from debate of the budget by Cabinet Committees.
• That the decision on the level of Council Tax precept would also be taken by the County Council on 9 February 2017.
• That 2017-18 would be an even more challenging budget to deliver.  Additional spending demands continued to accrue and combined with a ‘flat cash’ approach from government and against the background of lost government grants would ensure that further savings and income generation would be essential to delivering a balanced budget.  It was estimated that £78million of savings would be necessary, which given cumulative savings since 2010 would be very challenging. By the end of 2017-18 the Council would have delivered over £600m in savings over 7 years/
• He welcomed the additional one off payment of £6.2m for social care support included in the latest grant settlement but reported that it also contained a loss of £1.6m in the new homes bonus.
• Government had allowed a total of 6% increase in Council tax over three years towards the cost of adult social care; KCC believed that this should be allocated in three equal tranches of 2%.
• It was proposed to increase the council tax by just under 2%, plus the 2% social care levy.  Consultation had been undertaken with the public, businesses, trades unions, care associations and the youth council, there was sympathy for the 2% social care levy so long as it was spent exclusively on those services.

Andy Wood, Corporate Director of Finance and Procurement added the following:

• That of the £66million pressures reported in the proposed 2017-18 budget £51million of those were not negotiable and must be included.  In addition, the loss of £46m in Government grants was not within the control of Kent County Council.  Therefore, there was £97million loss to mitigate before any other emerging factors were considered.
• County Councils had reported in a recent survey that they intended to use an average of £20million of reserves to balance the 2017-18 budget.  That would equate to £30million of Kent County Council’s reserves.  Therefore he believed that the intended use of £11m of KCC reserves was appropriate. 
• Along with the flexibility to vary the social care levy by a further percent (within the 6% three year maximum), the Department of Communities and Local Government had indicated that tighter scrutiny and control of this levy was to be introduced.

The Leader summed up by restating that achieving this balanced budget in the difficult financial climate had been challenging and he thanked all those involved for their hard work toward this achievement. 

It was RESOLVED