Councillor Phil Davies introduced reports on the following budgetary matters:

(A)  Revenue Budget and Council Tax Levels – an update on the Medium Term Financial Strategy and Council Budget that had been reported to the Cabinet at its meeting on 8 December 2016.  It set out the background and the key elements contributing to the preparation of the 2017/18 Budget.

(B)  Capital Programme and Financing – providing the draft Capital Programme 2017/20 which represented a combination of Schemes originally approved as part of the 2016/19 Programme and updated through the Capital Monitoring reports in 2016/17 and some new bids, for consideration and referral to the Council for approval. It also included information regarding the revenue implications of this Programme and an update on the latest forecast for capital receipts.

(C)  Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) – presenting the MTFS based on what was an evolving system of funding and a number of key questions yet to be answered.  However it was clear that the scale of the financial challenges remained. The report set out the steps it was proposed should be taken to ensure the Council set balanced budgets while continuing to deliver the Wirral Plan. The Strategy included a set of indicative financial proposals for 2018/19 - 2020/21.

(D)  Schools Budget and Formula Funding Changes 2017/18 – covering education provision for all Wirral Pupils aged up to 16 in Early Years, Primary, Secondary and academy schools and for some pupils up to the age of 25 in Special Schools and High Needs providers.  Most budgets were delegated to schools with some central provision for support services including school admissions, PFI and High Needs. The report proposed a number of changes to the funding formula for Early Years to take account of national changes and increased resources. There were also changes proposed to High Needs places and funding.

Councillor Phil Davies informed that the Council was facing its most challenging budget ever with £45m cuts in Government funding this year.  This included a 3% precept to help relieve a financial crisis in adult social care and children’s services. It had been an extremely difficult budget to draw up as the Council faced a massively unfair local government funding system which favoured the more affluent local authorities in the south over those in the north of England.

One by one Cabinet Members raised concerns about the Government’s approach to local government funding and in particular the lack of funding for social care and agreed to continue to lobby Central Government against the cuts.

Councillor Chris Jones was concerned that social care was seriously underfunded by the Government and Wirral Council Tax Payers had the burden  ...  view the full minutes text for item 91