Issue - decisions

Members considered a report which presented the Council’s revenue budget proposals for the 2007/08 financial year and the potential financial position of the Council in 2008/09 and 2009/10.

The proposals represented a balanced budget for 2007/08, with the following key features (references in brackets are to the relevant sections of the report):

a)                 Revenue investment of £12.106m, the funding for which would be achieved through:

·        Revenue savings of £4.799m (Table 2)

·        An additional £3.416m from a Council Tax rise of 4.5% (Table 2)

·        Meeting £1.312m one-off expenditure from reserves (para. 50)

·        Additional Revenue Support Grant funding of £1.191m (Table 14)

·        An £850k share of the projected 2006/7 collection fund surplus (para. 45)

·        Other adjustments on corporate budgets totalling £538k (Annex 1);

b)                 A net revenue budget of £104.538m, to be funded by:

·        Council Tax income of £64.883m (para. 74)

·        Government grant of £38.343m (Table 12)

·        Use of reserves of £1.312m (para. 50);

c)                  Funding for pupil-led aspects of education, primarily schools, of £83.835m, to be met by the Dedicated Schools Grant (Table 16).`

It was stressed that the proposed budget was very ‘tight’ in a number of key areas.  The report highlighted the following issues as likely to add significant pressure either to the 2007/08 budget or to future Council budgets:

• The deficit on the pension fund (para. 21)
• The introduction of job evaluation (para. 26)
• The future costs of waste management (para. 127A)
• The increasing numbers of elderly persons and costs of services for them (para. 127E)
• The threatened cuts in grants for ‘supporting people’ (para. 127F)
• The backlog of outstanding works needed to the City infrastructure; in particular, roads and Council buildings (para. 127G).

If the income and expenditure proposals set out in the report were approved, this would result in an increase of 4.5% in the City of York element of the Council Tax.  The Director of Resources advised against any increase above 4.5%, as this would significantly increase the chance of government intervention.  The total Council Tax increase, including parish, Police and Fire Authority precepts, would be agreed at the Budget Council meeting on 21 February 2007.

Comments were invited from relevant Officers on the points made by UNISON representatives under Public Participation / Other Speakers in relation to specific savings proposals.  They indicated that:

• On CXS11, Officers would be happy to work with UNISON and other unions to monitor the effects of this saving;
• On HAS4, it was considered that the Community Base site had capacity to accommodate the transfer, but checks were being made;
• On CXS06, arrangements had been made to consult trades unions and affected staff before bringing the proposal forward.  The Chair indicated that the Executive was prepared to delete this proposal.