Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1 - Wallasey Town Hall

Items
No. Item

78.

Members' Code of Conduct - Declarations of Interest

Members of the Cabinet are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary and/or any other relevant interest, in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

Minutes:

Members of the Cabinet were asked to consider whether they had any disposable pecuniary and/or any other relevant interest, in connection with any item(s) on the agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest. 

 

Non Pecuniary - All Cabinet Members who were also School Governors declared non-pecuniary interests in Item No. 6D – Schools Budget and Funding Formula Changes 2018/19 by virtue of being School Governors.

 

Councillor George Davies declared a further Non Pecuniary interest by virtue of his daughter’s employment within the Schools Service. 

79.

Minutes

The minutes of the last meeting have been printed and published.  Any matters called in will be reported at the meeting.

 

RECOMMENDATION:  That the minutes be approved and adopted.

Minutes:

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 18 December 2017 be confirmed as a correct record. 

80.

Revenue Monitoring 2017/18 Quarter 3 pdf icon PDF 336 KB

Minutes:

JanetteWilliamson UPDATED - To be used in minutes

Councillor Janette Williamson (Cabinet Member for Finance and Income Generation) said:

 

The Council continues to plan and manage its budget in a sustainable, responsible and robust fashion. There are enormous demands on our services and we must ensure we can be flexible to react to changing circumstances.

 

“We continue to look for opportunities to make best use of the resources available, ensuring they are well managed, used to deliver best value for Wirral residents, and enable us to deliver our 20 Pledges.”

 

Councillor Janette Williamson introduced a report that set out the projected revenue position for 2017/18 as at the end of Quarter 3 (31 December 2017).

 

Councillor Williamson highlighted that the latest forecast which was an underspend of £1.3 million for 2017/18. This was an improvement on the Quarter 2 forecast overspend of £1.2 million, primarily the result of the approval by Council on the 11 December 2017 of the Treasury Management Mid-Year report that recommended a change in the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) Policy for assets funded from supported capital.  By adopting an asset life annuity approach the in-year reduction of MRP charges would be realised in 2017/18.

 

This was a key decision which affected all Wards in the Borough.

 

RESOLVED: That:

 

(1)  The Quarter 3 forecast year-end underspend of £1.3 million, which incorporated a £4.5 million adverse variance relating to Children’s Services and related legal costs, and the projected General Fund Balances of £14.1 million at 31 March 2018, be noted; and

 

(2)  Officers continue to identify actions and measures to effectively manage the overall budget and reduce the impact of any adverse projected overspends.

 

 

81.

Capital Monitoring 2017/18 Quarter 3 pdf icon PDF 326 KB

Minutes:

JanetteWilliamson UPDATED - To be used in minutes

Councillor Janette Williamson (Cabinet Member for Finance and Income Generation) said:

 

“This report demonstrates the major investment we are making against our priorities.  It shows the sensible and pragmatic steps we are taking to make best use of the resources available to develop our assets to support our services to the public”.

 

Councillor Janette Williamson introduced a report which provided an update on the progress in delivering the Capital Programme 2017/18 at the end of December 2017. 

 

The report recommended that the Cabinet approve an amended 2017/18 Capital Programme of £59.4 million which took into account re-profiling, new bids, revised grants etc. identified since the Quarter 2 monitoring report.  It was noted that the expenditure to date was £26.0 million.

 

This matter was a Key Decision which affected all Wards within the Borough.

 

RESOLVED: That:

 

(1)  The expenditure at Quarter 3 of £26.0 million be noted;

 

(2)  The new bid of £0.18 million (Mobile I.T. equipment for Social Workers, paragraph 3.3.1 of the report) be approved for inclusion in the programme and referred to Council;

 

(3)  The revised Capital Programme of £59.4 million (Table 1 of the report) be agreed and referred to Council.

82.

2018/19 Budget Proposals Scrutiny Report pdf icon PDF 93 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

PhilDavies

Councillor Phil Davies, Leader of the Council – Growth, said:

“As austerity policies continue, the Council’s budget position does not get any easier.

 

This inevitably requires difficult proposals to be put on the table for investigation, review and debate.  This Administration has consistently developed budgets in a consultative, collaborative manner – inviting all Elected Members and other stakeholders to provide their views and make their voice heard.

 

I am grateful to the Members of our Overview and Scrutiny committees who have once again provided invaluable insight and opinion on the budget proposals this year”.

 

Councillor Phil Davies introduced a report that set out the feedback from the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committees in relation to the Budget Proposals for 2018/19.  This followed a series of budget scrutiny workshops which were held during January.  There was a separate report from each of the committees which were attached as appendices to the report.  These captured the issues raised and general feedback from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Members at the workshop sessions.

 

As the report addressed the proposals for the 2018/19 budge, it related to all Wirral Plan pledges and all wards in the borough.

 

This report was not a Key Decision.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That Cabinet will consider the content of these reports as part of its deliberations in developing its budget recommendation for Council.

83.

COUNCIL BUDGET 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 194 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

PhilDavies

Councillor Phil Davies (Leader of the Council), said:

 

“We have a responsibility to set a fair, sustainable and balanced budget.  This is a challenge which gets more difficult every year, as austerity policies continue to bite.

 

We have committed to 20 Pledges in our Wirral Plan and, despite the continued reductions in our budget, we are determined we will deliver on what we promised”.

 

Councillors Phil Davies, Janette Williamson and Bernie Mooney introduced reports on the following budgetary matters:

 

(A)Revenue Budget and Council Tax Levels 2018/19 (Councillor Davies) – that provided an update on the Medium Term Financial Strategy and Council Budget 2018/19 reported to Cabinet on 18 December 2017. It set out the background and the key elements contributing to the preparation of the Budget for 2018/19.

 

(B)Treasury Management Strategy Statement (Councillor Williamson) – that provided the Authority’s treasury management activity as underpinned by CIPFA’s Code of Practice on Treasury Management (“the Code”), which required the production of annual Prudential Indicators and a Treasury Management Strategy Statement on likely financing and investment activity. The Code also recommended that Members were informed of treasury management activities at least twice a year. The report fulfilled the Authority’s legal obligation under the Local Government Act 2003 to have regard to both the CIPFA Code and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) Investment Guidance.

 

(C)Capital Programme and Financing (Councillor Davies) – the report provided Cabinet with the draft Capital Programme 2018/21 for consideration and referral to Council for approval. It also included information regarding the revenue implications of the Programme and an update on the latest forecast for capital receipts. The 2018/21 Capital Programme represented a combination of schemes originally approved as part of the 2017/20 Programme, updated through the Capital Monitoring reports in 2017/18 and new bids for inclusion as detailed in the report.

 

(D)Schools Budget and Formula Funding Changes 2018/19 (Councillor Mooney) – the report set out the Schools Budget for 2018/19 having been previously considered by the Schools Forum at their meeting on 17 January 2018. The Schools Budget covered education provision for all Wirral Pupils aged up to 18 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. The report informed that most budgets were delegated to schools with some central provision for support services including school admissions and High Needs. The report proposed a number of changes to the local funding formula for Schools to allow a transitional transfer to the National Funding Formula.

 

Councillor Phil Davies informed that the Council continued to face another year of challenge to its budget setting year arising from further cuts in funding imposed by the Government. This year’s budget included huge pressures on the Council to generate additional revenue that meant that in addition to raising income through a variety of projects, the Council would be raising additional monies via the permitted Social Care precept and utilising the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 83.