Agenda item
To submit the report of the Head of Finance.
Minutes:
The report
was submitted by the Senior Finance Manager, who gave
the context and elaborated on the contents of the report that had been submitted
to Cabinet on 16 October
2018. She noted that the end of August review of the budgets indicated a mixed picture, however, specific actions were required
for the Education Department, Children and Families Department
together with the Highways and Municipal Departments to ensure control of their budgets by 31 March 2019.
Attention was drawn to the Cabinet's decision:
"To accept
the report on the end of August 2018 review of the Revenue Budget and consider
the latest financial situation regarding the budgets of each
department/service.
·
To ask the Cabinet Members for Children, Education
and Highways and Municipal services to ensure that the departments have a clear
implementation plan to reduce the financial deficit and to discuss those plans
with me so that I can be confident that they are reasonable.
·
Reimburse the Economy and Community Department
£40k, which is the income loss resulting from the closure of the Arfon swimming pool over the summer.
·
Harvest (£1,904) of the net underspend on Corporate
budgets, with (£40k) to be used to reimburse the Economy and Community
Department for the income loss while the Arfon
swimming pool was closed. With the remaining (£1,864) to be transferred to the
Supporting the Financial Strategy Reserve to support the inevitable one-off
pressure on the Council's budget.”
During the ensuing discussion, officers and
the Cabinet Member for Finance responded to members' enquiries as follows:
·
That the Arfon swimming
pool was closed for ten weeks over the summer to
enable adaptations to be undertaken. In fairness to Byw'n
Iach Cyf, who will be
responsible for the healthy living centres from April 2019 onwards, the Economy
and Community Department would be reimbursed for the income loss;
·
Agree with the members' observations, the overspend
position in terms of transport in the Education Department was unacceptable. A
meeting took place with the relevant officers together with the Chief Executive
to discuss this issue and it also received attention
at the Cabinet meeting on 16 October 2018. The overspend
in the departments linked to the services that are associated with the most
vulnerable people and in this case the overspend was for transporting children
to Ysgol Hafod Lon. The
department was asked to consider alternative ways of transporting pupils by
perhaps paying parents rather than using a taxi with a requirement for an
escort to be present;
·
That the Cabinet consider the
overspend in terms of transport in the Education Department and
challenge the Cabinet Member for Education and the officers. It was necessary
to change the system and it would be very difficult to solve the overspend by
supporting the existing system;
·
Encourage members to attend one of the four
workshops at the start of December regarding savings and the financial
position;
·
It was estimated that there would be £2.9 million
income in terms of the Council Tax Premium Scheme at the end of the financial year, £200,000 had been committed in the budget to enforce
the system. With a percentage of the remaining money committed to improve the
situation in terms of housing for young people. The number of applications from
house owners to register their houses as a business continued to increase. The
Valuation Office did not have sufficient resources to challenge the
applications appropriately. Welsh Government will continue to be lobbied to
change the system and encourage other councils to lobby on the matter, Pembrokeshire
County Council were lobbying, and the Isle of Anglesey Council had written to
Mark Drakeford AM, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, requesting that he discusses
the matter with HM Revenue and Customs;
·
That the Council lobbies the Welsh Government in the context of the need to change the system by presenting a
requirement to receive permission via the planning system to change a house into a business,
but the Government did not
support this;
·
Assure members that the
Cabinet places the people
of Gwynedd at the heart of all they
do and that changes will be made to the ways services are provided
in light of the financial challenge and by trying to ensure that no
one suffers. Pressure would be brought to bear on Cardiff in terms
of funding councils and the Leaders of North Wales Councils had recently met with Mark Drakeford AM to discuss the matter;
·
In terms of a member's concern that there was a
reduction in the number of domiciliary care packages in the Adults, Health and
Well-being Department, each case was considered individually and they way in which services are provided would be looked at;
·
That the Council provides internal domiciliary care
and residential packages at a higher percentage than other councils in north Wales. Internal provision was essential in rural areas
where private provision was not available. As part of the savings,
consideration had been given to externalise the provision but when comparing
costs it was found that there would be no difference regarding costs;
·
In the context of the reduction in the number of
applications as part of the Council's Tax Reduction scheme, there was no robust
explanation but there was a tendency to suggest that the economy was improving
and seasonal jobs may mean that persons were above the threshold to receive
benefits;
·
That the Council sends an information pack
regarding the Council Tax Reduction scheme to individuals and this was funded by Welsh Government.
RESOLVED:
(i)
to note the situation and the relevant risks in the context of the
Council’s budgets and its departments;
(ii)
to request that the Education and Economy
Scrutiny Committee consider scrutinising the overspend of the Education Department on pupil
transport.
Supporting documents:
- Revenue Budget 2018-19 - End of August 2018 Review, item 6. PDF 218 KB
- Cabinet Report 16/10/18, item 6. PDF 77 KB
- Appendix 1, item 6. PDF 40 KB
- Appendix 2, item 6. PDF 149 KB