Agenda item

To accept the information in the report and to note the progress towards realising the savings schemes for 2022/23, 2021/22 and previous years.

To note that the impact of Covid-19 had contributed to a slippage in the savings programme, as the Council had given the utmost priority to safeguarding the health and lives of the people of Gwynedd in response to the crisis.

The report was submitted by Cllr Ioan Thomas 

DECISION

To accept the information in the report and to note the progress towards realising the savings schemes for 2022/23, 2021/22 and previous years.

It was noted that the impact of Covid-19 had contributed to a slippage in the savings programme, as the Council had prioritised responding to the emergency during the initial period of the crisis.

DISCUSSION

The report was submitted, noting that the report summarised the Council's savings' situation. It was explained as per the previous report, that the report had been submitted to the Governance and Audit Committee, which was eager to recommend to the Cabinet that the schemes that were not being realised needed to be challenged in detail and that there was a need to ensure a regular review of those schemes that were slipping and refer the schemes to the work programmes of the relevant Scrutiny Committees.

It was expressed that since 2015/16, savings to the value of £35.4m had been approved to be realised during the 2015/16 - 2022/23 period. It was further emphasised that a total of £3.4m of savings had been realised, which was 94% of the required sum over the period. It was explained for the period from 2015/16 to 2020/21 that 97% of the savings schemes had been realised, with schemes from the Adults, Health and Well-being Department and Highways and Municipal Department yet to be achieved.

Attention was drawn to the 2021/22 savings, noting that 65% of the schemes had now been delivered, with delivery problems to be seen in the Highways and Municipal Department and the Housing and Property Department. It was explained that when preparing the 2022/23 budget, it had to be acknowledged that the situation had changed so much that it had not been possible to deliver the savings schemes that had been planned originally and almost half a million pounds' worth of schemes had been completely removed from the budget. In addition, the delivery profile for schemes to the value of £1.3m had been moved to 2023/24 and therefore, £595k was the value of the residual schemes to be removed from the 2022/23 budget.

Of these schemes for this year, it was noted that 22% of the schemes had already been realised, with 19% now on track to deliver on time. It was highlighted that the departments with the highest value schemes that were yet to be delivered were the Highways and Municipal and Economy and Community Departments.

It was highlighted that realising £33.4m since April 2015 had been incredibly challenging, and that there were delays and delivery risks with some of the remaining schemes. The need to review the schemes by the end of the financial year was emphasised.

Observations arising from the discussion

¾    It was noted that savings to the value of £33.4m which had been realised since 2015/16 highlighted the work that had been done by staff to face and realise the savings within the Council. Staff were thanked for their work.