Agenda item

To consider the report of the Head of Treasury Services - report circulated.

The Director Community and Environment presented a report on the Community Revenue Account Estimates and Fees and Charges, which outlined the strategic framework within which the estimates had been prepared, changes in accounting practices which affected all budgets and gave detailed reasons for major changes in the Management Unit estimates. Detailed schedules of the capital programme for Community were also attached to the report.

The Director Community and Environment reported that since the estimates set out in the report had been compiled and discussed at the informal briefing for this Committee before Christmas, it had become apparent that it was unlikely that the Government was going to amend the concessionary travel reimbursement arrangements before the Council sets its council tax and budget for 2009/10. Because of this, the Council had to account for the estimated further shortfall of £1.3 million in reimbursement for 2009/10 in its budget. This required savings equivalent to this sum to be identified so that a balanced budget could be set by Council on 24 February 2009. The Strategic Management Team and Portfolio Holders were therefore urgently reviewing all budget heads in order to close the funding gap.

A number of Council-wide savings had been identified, such as providing for a reduced level of pay award in 2009/10 (which was included in the report), and all Directorate budgets were being reviewed. It was unlikely that all the required savings could be achieved without savings from reducing staffing levels but every effort was being made to ensure that any compulsory redundancies were minimised.

This urgent work was on-going and every effort would be made to report the overall proposed savings to the Scrutiny Committee - Resources (or its Budget Review Member Working Group if that was not possible) before submission to the Executive on 10 February and Council on 24 February 2009.

The details of any savings made as a result of the budget setting would be reported to the relevant Scrutiny Committee meetings in the March cycle, along with the position on any unresolved issues.

The Director emphasised that the process of finding savings and the review of the budget were in the early stages but that the protection of services was of paramount consideration. Obtaining best value for money and staff welfare were also vital and the Chair referred to the importance of maintaining staff morale. The Director advised that the pay award was negotiated nationally and that, in the past, figures settled on had been the same for the differing negotiating bodies. She also stated that the process would be as open as possible and that the information would be released as quickly as possible.

In response to a Member, who referred to a newspaper article that had stated that the cost of housing benefit in Exeter was the seventh highest in the country, the Head of Housing Services advised that the statistics had been distorted by an isolated case involving the re-housing of a very large family.

In answer to a question about the high differential between “commercial” and other “fees” for laying up boats on the Canal, the Head of Leisure and Museums explained that the commercial rates were intended to be applied to vessels trading - that is loading or unloading - in the canal, although the last use of this scale of charges had been several years ago. Recently a customer, probably for VAT purposes, had asked to be placed on a commercial rate, although this had not in fact happened. The Head of Leisure and Museums assured Members that there was not, and never had been, any intention to charge commercial rates for the storing of boats even those being restored or maintained by small local businesses.

The Head of Environmental Health Services, in response to a Member, confirmed that the pilot arrangements for the extension of the out of hours service were being put forward for consideration by Members later in the meeting.

The Chair concluded by emphasising the Committee’s desire that the focus of the forthcoming review of the budget should be on service provision.

The Scrutiny Committee - Community noted the draft Revenue Estimates for 2009/10 and Fees and Charges for further consideration by the Executive.

(Report circulated)