Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 15 December were an accurate record and that they be signed by the Chairman.

1.    Mr Wood gave a short presentation on the key facts and figures. 

2.    In January 2016, when the Council was looking forward to 2017/18, there was £52million of unidentified savings out of a total of £80million savings required to balance the books.  In January 2017 the pressures on the budget had increased by £8million and Government Grant cuts are £2m higher, which meant an extra £10million of savings or income was needed.  The increase in Council tax had raised an additional £13million which means the savings needed had fallen very slightly, from £80m to £78m.  

3.    Of the pressures faced by the services within KCC £51million were unavoidable.  Of those which were categorised as ‘might be avoidable’ within the social care budget there were market sustainability problems in finding the right type and cost of care, particularly domiciliary.  There was an expectation that the Local Authority would ensure a sustainable market and £6.8million had been earmarked to ensure that care was delivered as necessary. 

4.    Referring to the loss of the Revenue Support Grant this was £45million and there had been an unexpected loss of £9million from the Education Services Grant.  The Council had, however, received £6million in the form of a Social Care Support Grant and an extra £6m of business rates.

5.    The tax base had increased and with a proposed increase of 1.99% together with the 2% social care levy £34million would be collected through council tax and business rates.  Referring to the social care levy the golden rule in the 4 year settlement was that local authorities could increase council tax by 6% over the next three years, but not increase it by more than 3% in any one year.  KCC’s proposal was to increase by 2%.  The increase in business rates was in line with expected inflation.   

6.    The Council was facing £66million pressures on the budget, combined with £46million in grant reductions and £34million from council tax and business rates.  This resulted in £78million savings to balance the books for 2017/18.  At the time of this meeting,  £47million of the savings were RAG rated as ‘green’ and £31million ‘amber’.  There was more risk attached to the 17/18 savings than in 16/17. 

7.    The Chairman then opened the session up for questions.

8.    In response to a question about the savings made by the Education Directorate Mr Shipton explained that the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) was introduced in 2013 as a mechanism for compensating academies for central functions.  The Government consulted on their proposals to remove the Education Services Grant but this was linked to changes to statutory functions of the Local Authority as they had a lessening role in schools. However, when the element about the local authority’s role in schools got deferred, and those changes were not made, the Government still removed the Education Services Grant used to fund the statutory services in schools.  It was not possible to make savings from the Education budget as the statutory duties on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 122.

That under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act. 

EXEMPT ITEMS

(During these items the meeting is likely NOT to be open to the press and public)

RESOLVED that under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following business on grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of part 1 of schedule 12A of the Act. 

EXEMPT ITEM

1.    A Member asked for confirmation of when the RGF would be submitted to the Scrutiny Committee.  The Scrutiny Research Officer confirmed that this report was being prepared for the March 2017 meeting of the Scrutiny Committee. 

RESOLVED that the exempt minute of the meeting held on 15 December was an accurate record and that it be signed by the Chairman.