Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) attached

The report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) explained how the budget proposals for the Directorate had been developed.

The 2021/22 budget process saw the Council develop savings and efficiency plans of over £48m over the three years to 2023/24.  Overall, savings of £6.683m had been identified for 2021/22 within the Neighbourhoods Directorate and most of these were on track to be achieved. A further £493k savings had been profiled for 2022/23.

Appended to the report were details of the initial revenue budget changes proposed by officers and the planned capital budget and pipeline priorities.

In addition, and as part of the 2021/22 budget setting process, ongoing demographic funding for Homelessness had been included for 2022/23 at £1.7m, increasing to £6.7m by 2024/25. In addition, a further £7m was added to the initial 2021/22 budget to reflect the additional impact of covid-19 on demand for homelessness services.  Whilst the £7m had been utilised, this had been in response to the pandemic and action taken in 2021/22. It was expected that the changes to the service and additional government grant funding around the rough sleeper initiative (yet to be allocated to Councils) would mean that the budget would be sufficient for 2022/23, and that demand reductions and therefore budget reductions would be possible in future years.

It was therefore not expected that the further planned £1.7m per annum increase that was originally budgeted for 2022/23 would be required and this had now been removed from the budget assumptions, although the position will be kept under review.  To manage risk in this area a £1.5m homelessness contingency reserve was proposed.

The Directorate Budget had also been considered at a recent meeting of the Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee (Minute CESC/22/09), and also at a meeting of the Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee (Minute ECCSC/22/07).

The Executive noted that at the Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee, the following amendment had been proposed:-

·                That a Capital Budget of £1m be established for the Executive Member for Environment, with this budget specifically used to support work and initiatives to tackle air pollution across the city.  This budget could be funded by levying a Section 106 charge of £1000 for all new build homes for sale in Manchester (excluding social housing and a reduced charge for affordable housing).

It was also noted that the Committee had recommended that funding be provided to permanently fund the Climate Change Officer posts.

Decisions

The Executive:-

(1)      Approve the Directorate budget proposals as set out in the report.

(2)      Recommend Council agree that funding be provided to permanently fund the Climate Change Officer posts.

(3)      Supports the intention of the proposed amendment and requests that Officers set out within the report for Resources and Governance Budget Scrutiny how part of the £192m directed towards tackling climate change is proposed to be spent on improving air quality.