Agenda item

Report by the Chief Executive.

23.1     The Lead Member for Resources introduced report. The report provides the Committee with the opportunity to explore any savings that have not been considered, and to identify any further information it requires on the RPPR process. The savings outlined in Appendix 3 of the report have been in the medium term financial plan (MTFP) for three years now, and are required to achieve a balanced budget. The savings put forward are those that officers consider will have least impact on services, but that is not to say they will not have an impact.

23.2     The Chief Executive highlighted the State of County report that was presented to Cabinet in June, which set out the Council’s overall financial position. The Scrutiny Committee RPPR report seeks to focus attention on the services which are within the remit of the Committee. There is information on the revenue and capital budgets for those services; the more detailed service plans contained in the Portfolio Plans and; the agreed savings programme. The Chief Executive asked if the Committee required any more information, and whether there were any further areas for savings which it wished to examine.

23.3     The Committee Members commented that there was a lot of information and it was difficult to get to the detail in terms of the performance indicators, service plans and the impact on services. The Chief Executive explained that the Portfolio Plans were intended to provide information on individual service plans and the Council Plan targets that applied to those services. The Council Plan itself brings together all the performance targets and has very detailed plans which underpin it.

23.4     The Lead Member for Resources acknowledged that many of the Committee members are joining the savings process towards the end of the three year MTFP programme. The Council is in the really difficult position managing a reduction in budget, whilst the pressure on services is increasing. The Council has been doing this quite well for the last six or seven years, but will struggle to continue to do this without there being an impact on services. There are examples of innovative approaches to this situation, such as Orbis, which is one of the biggest shared business service partnerships providing better value for money for each of the partners.

23.5     The Committee commented that it would be helpful to have information on the likely revenue budget framework going forward, and an indication of where the Council was now in terms of the operational financial position.

23.6     The Chief Executive responded that the likely future budget framework is outlined in the State of the County report. The Council has a 3-5 year MTFP, but there is a note of significant caution on what the final figures will be due to the uncertainty of future funding. This will be updated as more precise information is known, including an update that will be presented to Cabinet in October. The Council’s current operational financial position is reported through the quarterly monitoring reports which go to Cabinet. The Chief Executive offered to provide a further briefing on the financial information to the Committee, either on an individual basis, or as a group. The Lead Member for Resources added that he would be holding surgeries on the budget, as he did last year, that members of the Committee could attend if they wished.

23.7     The Chief Operating Officer outlined the savings plans for 2018/19 for the Services that are within the Committee’s remit. The information in Appendix 3 indicates the current areas of search for savings, but further areas will need to be identified for the financial years 2019/20 and 2020/21. It is planned to have an Orbis Business Service Plans in place for future years.

23.8     The Committee requested further information the potential savings or income generation from the Property Investment Strategy, Procurement and the work undertaken on commercialisation by the Income Generation group. The Chief Operating Officer responded that the Committee would receive an update on Procurement under agenda item 9. An update on the Property Investment Strategy and income generation work could be brought to the RPPR Board in December.

23.9     The Committee discussed the formation of an RPPR Board to examine the emerging financial and portfolio plans for 2018/19 and provide comments to Cabinet. The Chair invited Committee members to take part in the RPPR Board, which will be held after Cabinet on the 12 December 2017. Councillors Andy Smith, Philip Daniel, John Barnes, Peter Pragnell and Gerard Fox indicated that they would like take part.

23.10   The Committee RESOLVED to:

1) Request further information on the work of the Income Generation group and an update on the Property Investment Strategy; and

2) Establish an RPPR Board made up of the whole Committee, which will meet in early December.