Agenda item

Zena Cooke, Corporate Director Finance and Dave Shipton, Head of Finance Policy, Planning & Strategy and Benjamin Watts, Monitoring Officer were in attendance for this item.

1) Mr Oakford said that the scrutiny process with all KCC Members for the draft budget had been completed.  The draft budget had been presented at all Cabinet Committees and was finalised by the full Scrutiny Committee.  No formal recommendations for changes to the draft budget were received as part of this process.

2) The draft budget had been developed to reflect the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and contained an element of financial sustainability to ensure that KCC was able to support residents throughout the next financial year and beyond.

3) Mr Shipton updated Members regarding responses from the budget consultation and it was noted that there had been a significant increase in responses compared to other recent budget consultations.  An overview of the key issues raised at Cabinet Committees and at Scrutiny Committee was given but no changes were formally recommended.

4) The government’s expectation is that an increasing proportion of KCC’s core spending power is funded from council tax.  This is reflected in the amount of council’s core spending funded from council tax has increased from 61% in 2015-2016 to 72.8% for 2021/2022 settlement.  The 2021/2022 amount is based on the government’s estimate for council tax base growth and council tax charge increases although we now have evidence that the tax base for 2021/2022 will be less than the government’s estimate and consequently the increase in the 2021/2022 budget will be less than the increase assumed in the government’s core spending power illustration.

5) Measures were proposed to strengthen KCC’s financial resilience within 2021-22 budget but it was not known what the final outturn was for 2020-21.

6) Ms Cooke said that work had been done since the budget amendment agreed in September 2020 and it was hoped there would be an underspend at the end of the financial year to support the 2021-22 budget.  There was a high level of risk, particularly in areas like Adult Social Care and Children’s Services where demand had been suppressed during lockdown restrictions.

7) Mr Watts said that queries that had been raised around the format of the budget provided to Members at Scrutiny Committee would be answered and Members of Cabinet copied into the response.

8) Miss Carey said that KCC’s spending power should be coming more from council tax as it was more reliable than investments and government grants and it was a strength that more of KCC’s core spending power was coming directly from Kent residents.

9) Ms Chandler said there was emphasis in the draft budget around the work on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and this had been noted by the Department for Education.

10) Mr Whiting said that he would have liked to have seen more going into reserves but felt it was a balanced and prudent budget.

11) The Leader said that some Members sitting on Cabinet Committees had raised concerns as part of the budget consultation that there was too much emphasis on income from council tax and others had queried whether enough was being done to increase reserves.  A balance was found to ensure KCC was prepared for the coming year.

12) Resolved that the briefing and consultation responses in the report be noted and the Capital Programme 2021-24, Revenue Budget 2021-22 and Medium term Financial Plan 2021-24 be endorsed.