The Chair introduced the report on the budget proposals for consultation and spoke of the unprecedented challenges which Wirral along with Councils across the country was going through, in particularly financially. She referred to the impact Covid had had on service delivery and the ability to generate income, from Council services such as leisure centres. There were still areas outside of Covid which continued to present financial pressures on the budget and these were what formed the £10m of proposals to be consulted upon.

The Chair thanked everyone for their participation in the workshop meetings, at which a consensus had been reached on the proposals in the report for consultation.

Shaer Halewood, Director of Resources, spoke to the report, which was part of the Council’s formal budget process, as set out in the constitution and in accordance with the legal requirements to set a balanced and sustainable budget for 2021/22. The report provided an update on the Budget process for 2021/22 previously reported to this Committee on 7 October 2020. 

The Council had applied for a capitalisation directive to mitigate the specific, unfunded financial impact associated with Covid-19. At the time of writing the report, there had been no formal notification of the award of this directive, however, it had been assumed it would be successful for the purposes of budget consultation. As the capitalisation directive related only to Covid-19 pressures, it could not be used for other pressures and as such, other savings were required to ensure Wirral could deliver a balanced budget for 2021/22.

Each year the Council did have between £16m and £20m worth of pressures, which had to be mitigated in the form of savings. She highlighted some of the demand pressures such as from Adult Social Care and Children and Families Service. A draft funding settlement had been received from the government on 17 December which was subject to a consultation period running until 16 January, 2021, although until a final settlement figure was received after the consultation ended, potentially at the end of January, the final budget gap would not be known.

The Committee had to recommend a 2021/22 balanced Budget proposal to the Council for its meeting in March 2021, it was good practice for the residents of Wirral to have their say on budget proposals and so the purpose of this report was to agree the budget proposals that would go out for public consultation.

Shaer Halewood responded to a number of comments made by Members and elaborated on the process for issuing a Section 114 Notice.

The Chair thanked all the committees and their Chairs which had been involved in the process and emphasised that this was the start of the budget setting process with many variables yet to play out. She stressed the importance of as many residents as possible getting involved in the consultation.

Members expressed the view that this was an appropriate document to go out to public consultation and on a motion by the Chair, seconded by Councillor Paul Stuart, it was -  

Resolved (unanimously) – That the Policy and Resources Committee:

(1)  Approves the financial proposals for 2021/22 that will be subject to consultation and subsequent consideration by Policy and Resources Committee in February 2021.

(2)  Agrees that this decision is urgent and therefore not subject to review.