Issue - meetings

3.1      Sir Steve Bullock (Mayor of Lewisham) addressed the Committee, highlighting the following key points:

§  The overall gap between available resources and required expenditure is £39m.

§  There are £28m of savings earmarked for next year, with £1.5m of those a carry-over from last year.

§  Some of the required expenditure will be covered by using the Council’s reserves.

§  Some of the overspend over the past year is due to unforeseen demand-driven expenditure during the year, such as the increase in those who have declared themselves homeless and in temporary accommodation.

3.2       Councillor Kevin Bonavia (Cabinet Member Resources) addressed the Committee, highlighting the following key points:

§  The Council would still need to look at further budget savings in later years due to the cuts in Government grant.

§  The Coalition Government’s policy in areas such as No Recourse to Public Funds and Welfare Reform is causing some of the budgetary pressures.

§  There is a danger that some of the budgetary pressures could become structural.

3.3       Cllr Alan Hall (Chair of Overview & Scrutiny) spoke to the Committee, highlighting the following key points:

§  The budgetary process that Lewisham has embarked on has never occurred in Lewisham’s history, with the Government grant being cut by a third, causing significant savings to be made.

§  The downward trajectory of spending is a result of the politics of ‘austerity’ by the Coalition Government.

§  The budgetary process is unique to Lewisham, with extensive pre-decision scrutiny of the proposed budget.

§  Staff should be thanked for their work in co-ordinating such a difficult process.

§  Budget savings updates need to be considered by the relevant Select Committees.

§  Staff needed to be supported through the changes and concerns raised about the changes needed to be addressed.

§  The Budget process needed to be evaluated to see what went well; and learn lessons from what could have been done better.

3.4       David Austin (Head of Corporate Resources) introduced the budget element of the report, highlighting the following key points:

§  The proposed Capital Programme (General Fund and Housing Revenue Account) budget for 2015/16 to 2018/19 of £424.3m, of which £132.7m is for 2015/16.

§  The provisional Dedicated Schools Grant allocation of £275.8m and a separate Pupil Premium allocation of £18.2m for 2015/16.

§  In respect of the General Fund, the assumed net revenue expenditure budget of £245.5m. This is made up of provisional Settlement Funding from government of £159.3m (grant and business rates), forecast Council Tax receipts, and a surplus on collection of Council Tax in previous years from the Collection Fund.

Reports of the Youth Service and Public Health Working Groups

3.5       Councillor Johnston-Franklin addressed the Committee in relation to the Youth Service Working Group. The key points to note were:

§  Base savings of £1.4m were proposed for the Youth Service with further savings programmed for future years (for which there were a number of options, including setting up an Employee Led Mutual).

§  The Working Group was set up  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3