To comment on the report to be considered by Cabinet on the 24 September 2015.

Members considered the report that was being submitted to the 24 September 2015 Cabinet.

The Finance Partner - Corporate Services & Operations, Mark Lampard, referred Members to the report on pages 1-8 in the agenda which explained that the Medium Term Financial Plan presented to Council in February 2015 identified the need to make budget savings of £7.2m in 2016-17.  Work carried out on the budget to date had reduced the target for services to £5.7m. The targets for the Comprehensive Spending Review 2015 announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in July 2015 indicated further spending reductions would be required over the next three years.

Members were informed that the funding settlement for 2016-17 would be the first of the current Parliament.  The new national Administration clearly had a number of important policy decisions to work through.   Whilst some forecasters indicated that the 2016-17 settlement might not be as challenging as feared, significant uncertainty remained.  It was noted that the Council was continuing, therefore, to work to the grant reduction assumptions that were included in the published MTFP until more clarity emerges with the provisional settlement, which was expected in December 2015.

It was noted that the report recommended that managers were authorised to implement the proposals as soon as practicable so that measures were in place by 1st April or earlier. Early implementation would help mitigate some of the service overspends currently being projected.

Members were informed that the report also recommended to Council that these proposals were included in the Budget for 2016-17 when it was discussed in February 2016.

In the ensuing discussion the following points / questions were noted:

Appendix A – 2016-17 Savings

1.         Adults & Community Services

a.         Housing

•           Line number 6, ‘Restructure of Housing options functions’ – whether by blending the services expertise from the Housing Options team with the CSC to provide a Maidenhead presence would dilute and undermine the service to the public?

o          It was requested that information about what was planned and the expected outcome be emailed to the Panel via the Clerk. 

•           Line number 7, ‘Continuation of policy to meet homelessness obligations by use of private rented accommodation’ – further detail was requested particularly with regard to efficiencies. 

•           Line number 8, ‘Review Supporting People contracts’ – what is the current amount of the Government ‘Supporting People’ grant provided for people in supported living, and how much of £1.525m budget is funded corporately?

2. Corporate Services

a. Development & Regeneration

•           Line number 29 ‘Savings to Revenue arising from the restructure of the team’ – Discussion of the Planning team; how a resolution could be found for residents who were finding it difficult to get hold of the service, particularly in the mornings.  It was noted that the team was felt to have enough staff subject to the outcome of the process review being undertaken by the Interim Borough Planning Manager, Simon Rowbury. 

•           That since these restructure savings had arisen from an appropriate capitalisation of relevant staff salaries, the borough should move to provide full development accounting, including a development balance sheet. This is needed to clearly show the difference between revenue and capital accounting.

•           Leisure Services: Line number 33 ‘Joint procurement of grounds maintenance contract with Wokingham BC’ – it was questioned whether Wokingham were getting the same savings as the Royal Borough?

General - It was noted that where savings were proposed the Panel had expected to see the rationale behind them.

The Finance Partner - Corporate Services & Operations agreed to request the above information from the relevant Heads of Service and distribute it to the Panel with the assistance of the Clerk.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: The Planning & Housing Overview & Scrutiny Panel unanimously agreed to recommend the following:

(i)         Recommends the savings listed in Appendix A to Council for inclusion in the 2016-17 budgets.

(ii)        Authorises Directors to implement savings plans as soon as possible.