Deputy Leader of the Council & Cabinet Member for Finance

To review the council’s approach to balancing the budget and:

i)               note the draft revenue budget for 2024/25 included in this report, which shows a preliminary balanced position.

ii)              note the proposed capital budget for 2024/25 and revised Medium Term Financial Plan to 2028/29 set out respectively in Appendices A and B.

iii)             consider the proposed budget pressures and savings / transformation / income proposals set out in Appendices C and D;

iv)             note the Equality Impacts Assessments shared at Appendix E; and

v)              agree to commence public consultation on the draft 2024-25 budget, including proposals to increase Council Tax by the maximum allowed by Government.  The consultation is expected to run from 14th December 2023 to 22nd January 2024.

AGREED: That Cabinet noted the report, reviewed the council’s approach to balancing the budget and:

i)               noted the draft revenue budget for 2024/25 included in the report, which showed a preliminary balanced position.

ii)              noted the proposed capital budget for 2024/25 and revised Medium Term Financial Plan to 2028/29 set out respectively in Appendices A and B.

iii)             considered the proposed budget pressures and savings / transformation / income proposals set out in Appendices C and D;

iv)             noted the Equality Impacts Assessments shared at Appendix E; and

v)              agreed to commence public consultation on the draft 2024-25 budget, including proposals to increase Council Tax by the maximum allowed by Government. The consultation was expected to run from 14th December 2023 to 22nd January 2024.

Councillors Hill & Bermange re-entered the room and rejoined the meeting.

Councillor Jones introduced the report to Cabinet and stated that it contained the details of the draft budget for 2024/25 and asked for approval of the document to gout to public consultation ahead of the final budget setting in February 2024. According to the local Government association almost one in five Council Leaders and Chief Executives in England, that completed a recent survey, believed that it was very or fairly likely that their Chief Finance Officer would need to issue a Section 114 notice in the current year or next due to a lack of funding to keep key services running. This had proved to be even more challenging due to not having a realistic baseline as the inherited budget set for 23/24 had proven to be non-realistic and undeliverable almost immediately. The draft budget before Cabinet, not only had to balance for the financial year 24/25, but also close a budget gap of £6 million, which was caused by the deficiencies of the budget approved in February 2023, that had left the Council with an unbudgeted overspend of over £7 million.

Councillor Jones said that due to historic financial decisions, the Council had a much lower level of funding than comparable Councils. Currently, the amount RBWM received in Council tax for a Band D property was on average between £413 and £698 lower than other neighbouring Councils. The report and accompanying appendices set out the Councils proposed Revenue budget, Capital budget, medium term Financial Plan & Growth and Efficiencies tables. It was clear from the revenue budget, that forecast costs relating to adult services had increased by £5 million, Children’s services by £2.6 million and the borrowing and MRP costs of servicing the circa £200 million debt had increased by £4 million to £13 million. A vitally important way to address the shortfall was to propose an increase in fees and charges, which was a tough decision to make and one that officers, and the Cabinet did not take lightly.

Councillor Jones then provided Cabinet with a breakdown of each inclusion within the appendices and outlined above. She then outlined the Council’s aims to achieve financial stability and was required to do this. These were:

•                Using technology across services including road repairs.

•                Bringing statutory services back in-house to the Council.

•                Investing more in early Intervention and prevention.

•                Investment in procurement and contract management to ensure best value for money and better outcomes.

•                Exploring new commercial opportunities for income from events, advertising, and sponsorship.

•                Investigating opportunities to develop Council owned accommodation and facilities to reduce reliance on high-cost providers.

•                Make better use of Council assets.

•                Securing investment and growth in our economy.

She concluded by putting on record her thanks to Elizabeth Griffiths, Executive Director of Resources and Section 151 Officer, and her team for their hard work over the last three months. The budget would go through public consultation, the 3 Overview & Scrutiny Panels and come back to Cabinet, before going to Council in February 2024 for approval.

Councillor Del Campo, Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Housing Services, said in terms of her portfolio, homelessness and rough sleeping was unfortunately on the rise currently and that private landlords were being seen to exit the market. This was having additional pressures on the budget. She acknowledged the tough rental market and said that she and officers were looking at new ways to support residents when it came to private accommodation.

Councillor Del Campo said that the Council was indebted to voluntary organisations and individuals whose support was fantastic. They provided vital support to residents, and she wished to work closely with them moving forward. She then placed on record her thanks to officers of the Council for their hard work with this.

Stephen Evans, Chief Executive, said that the report before Cabinet represented a huge step forward. He said that remarks made by Michael Gove. Secretary of State, last week about some Council’s being seen as a ‘crying wolf’ when it came to finances did not apply to RBWM and that the threat of issuing a Section 114 notice was very real. Despite the good work from officers, the borough were not yet out of the woods and the Council’s financial resilience remained extremely low. Increased pressures on the adult social care market and also external macroeconomic factors, continued to put pressures on the borough financially.

Stephen Evans said in terms of due diligence, responses to the public consultation would be considered along with various process being put in place. This included new boards and greater dives to scrutinise the budget at various boards and panels. 

Councillor Reynolds said that it was important to realise that although Council tax may be a lot lower in RBWM, this did not mean that services were a lot cheaper to deliver than other local authorities. He then wished to pull out one certain line out of the budget to note, which was increased money for an improved health suite at Windsor Leisure Centre. This was funded by developers through CIL, which would attract more persons and assist the borough in generating more revenue. This showed an example of the new administration identifying key areas to invest in to see increased revenues, which would assist in fixing the mess that has been inherited.  He said that it was the Council’s priority to best use resources to bridge that gap and fix the mess that had been inherited.

Councillor Hill thanked Councillor Jones and Werner especially, for their hard work in producing the draft budget along with the officers who were also involved. He said that the issues in the past with having a draft budget that was not open and transparent was that money was having to be taken from one area such as ‘Place’ and fed into another. In the past, this had seen a halt on several highways’ projects for example, which was not good. This included several bridges. Policy would come second, and infrastructure repairs would come first, to avoid an awful mess.

Councillor Hill then said that the inspection team would now be brought back in-house. This was important as the inspectors would now be working for the Council directly and that they would be ensuring that contracts were delivered expertly for residents. The borough would now be ‘marking their homework’ rather than them ‘marking their own homework’.  He added that there was also a new thermal device that would allow for highways repairs, which was a lot more efficient.

Councillor Tisi, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education and Windsor, said that for around every £100 that as spent in the budget, £28 was spent on Children’s Services, with many of these services being statutory services. She added that early support and prevention of issues before they were to escalate, was a crucial priority for the new administration. She commended officers for their work on transformation when it came to the budget.

Councillor Davies said that having inherited such a difficult financial situation, the tackling of climate change was challenging. However, she wished to thank the Place directorate for the work they had done in terms of identifying areas of service transformation. If persons came together, thought smartly and were innovative, then ways to both save money and cut carbon by doing something different, were possible. Mixed recycling had been an area looked at, along with energy management. Both would cut costs and carbon emissions. 

Councillor Bermange thanked Councillor Jones and officers for their hard work in producing a balanced draft budget for 2024/25, considering the looming threat of issuing a Section 114 notice. He commended the work to tackle the issue head on and not to bury things for another day. He said that in terms of a governance viewpoint, everything had been gone through in extreme detail to ensure that the savings were actually deliverable. He finished by encouraging residents to engage in the public consultation process and the Overview & Scrutiny process over the coming weeks.

The Chair thanked all for their words and then outlined what changes had now been made by the Cabinet, compared to what had been inherited from the previous administration.

•                No unachievable savings targets included within the draft budget.

•                Transformations were true ones and not cuts in disguise.

•                Making better use of insourcing in street care and adult services.

•                Ensuring the risks are kept in the public domain, to ensure they are known by the residents.

•                Making better use of commercialisation.

The Chair then made it clear that the mess was not fixed, and that work was still ongoing, however the draft budget was a huge step forward. He was also keen to hear from residents on their concerns and ideas on the budget too.

Councillor Price then praised officers and the Cabinet for being able to produce a balanced draft budget, as she did not think it would be possible. The situation took a huge amount of maturity to deal with, which she said the Cabinet proved that they had. She then thanked Councillor Del Campo for putting on record her thanks to the voluntary sector who had worked very hard in recent times. She then noted as she had in previous Cabinet meetings, that communication with residents was essential, with the utilisation of language that they could relate too. 

AGREED: That Cabinet noted the report, reviewed the council’s approach to balancing the budget and:

i)               noted the draft revenue budget for 2024/25 included in the report, which showed a preliminary balanced position.

ii)             noted the proposed capital budget for 2024/25 and revised Medium Term Financial Plan to 2028/29 set out respectively in Appendices A and B.

iii)            considered the proposed budget pressures and savings / transformation / income proposals set out in Appendices C and D;

iv)            noted the Equality Impacts Assessments shared at Appendix E; and

v)             agreed to commence public consultation on the draft 2024-25 budget, including proposals to increase Council Tax by the maximum allowed by Government. The consultation was expected to run from 14th December 2023 to 22nd January 2024.