Agenda item

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Finance, Growth and the City Centre

The Leader of the Council agreed that this item, although not on the agenda, could be considered as a matter of urgency in accordance with Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972 because the proposals need to be released for public consultation in order to allow sufficient time before the Medium Term Financial Plan is bought to Executive Board in early 2020.

The Board considered the report of the Portfolio Holder for Finance, Growth and City Centre that contained draft proposals for the revenue element of the Council’s draft Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for 2020/2021 to 2022/23.

The following points were raised during discussion:

(a)  The Leader of the Council thanked Portfolio Holders and Officers involved in the process of compiling the budget proposals acknowledging the difficulty of the task after a number of years of austerity;

(b)  The proposals to raise Council tax by 3.99% includes the 2% Social Care precept and the maximum 1.99% rise of council tax. This rise will protect front line and statutory services such as Adult social care;

(c)  The budget proposals outline savings of £13.4m. There is an additional £2.4m of savings to establish and these will be presented to a future Board in 2020;

(d)  Nottingham City Council has achieved £20m commercial external income which has further helped protect services from cuts;

(e)  Savings highlighted directly were the relocation of The Willows older people day service into Cherry Trees residential service, an alternative operating model for the Tennis Centre, and proposals around the Link bus services;

(f)  A number of teams were praised for their commercialisation and ability to bring in external income. The Energy Services Team, and the Planning and Building Control Team were praised for their consultancy work and in particular the self funding nature of the Planning and Building Control Team.

RESOLVED to note, endorse and release the consultation proposals as set out in paragraph 2.4 and table 6 of the published report for formal consultation, Nottingham that further details relating to individual consultation proposals are contained in appendix 2a-j of the published report.

Reason for decision

By endorsing the recommendation in the report it is possible to release details of the budget proposals for 2020/21 for public consultation.

Any options that include proposed workforce reductions will be subject to internal consultation, which entails jointly examining and discussing the proposals and issues of concern with the trade unions and affected colleagues. The details of such proposals may, therefore, change during the consultation period and may impact on the way in which identified proposals will be delivered.

Other options considered

Throughout the budget process a range of different options have been considered including various levels of council tax, investment and cost reductions. This is a complex process with many iterations and possibilities too numerous and detailed to present as discrete options here. The published report presents the overall set of current draft proposals which together seek to balance levels of investment, income, cost reductions and an appropriate level of council tax.