The proceedings of the Art Galleries Committee on 13 February 2019 which provided details of the Art Galleries budget for 2019/20 were submitted for approval. In addition, the part proceedings of the Executive on 13 February 2019 were submitted for approval, which contained details on the following:

·           The Council’s Budget 2019/20 covering report;

·           Medium Term Financial Plan 2019/20 - 2021/22;

·           Capital Strategy and Budget 2019/20 to 2023/24;

·           Corporate Core Business Plan 2019/20;

·           Neighbourhoods Directorate Business Planning 2019/20;

·           Children’s Services and Education Business Planning 2019/20;

·           Dedicated Schools Grant 2019/20;

·           Strategic Development Business Planning 2019/20;

·           Housing Revenue Account 2019/20 to 2021/22;

·           Manchester Health and Care Commissioning – Adult Social Care Business Plan and Pooled Budget Planning 2019/20;

·           Homelessness Business Planning 2019/20;

·           Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Borrowing Limits and Annual Investment Strategy 2019/20.

The Council considered:

·         The Capital Strategy and Budget (Budget 2019/20 – 2023/24) report of the Chief Executive and City Treasurer;

·         The Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Borrowing Limits and Annual Investment Strategy 2019/20 report of the City Treasurer; and

·         The Council Tax Resolution 2019/20 report of the Chief Executive, the City Treasurer and the City Solicitor containing revised budget calculations, as authorised by the Executive.

In addition, the Council received the minutes of the Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee on 25 February 2019 that had considered the Budget Report 2019-2020.

The following amendment from Councillor Ellison to the Council Tax Resolution 2019/20 on the report of the City Treasurer and Chief Executive was circulated:

“To allocate a budget of £1.5m over three years, to be phased £420k in the first year and £540k in both subsequent years, to increase the capacity of the City Council to tackle anti-social behaviour in our neighbourhoods, to be funded out of the proposed reimbursement of £1.5m to the general fund reserve budgeted for in 2018/19.”

The Leader confirmed that the amendment proposed by Councillor Ellison had been accepted for incorporation into the Council Budget motion. Councillor Ellison confirmed that he had consented to the amendment being incorporated into the motion moved by the Leader of the Council.

Council was invited to approve proposals to ensure that the Housing Revenue Account for 2019/20 does not show a debit balance, as set out in Appendix 1 to these minutes.

As part of the recommendations within minute reference Exe/19/12 of the part proceedings: Medium Term Financial Plan 2019-2020 – 2021/2022 Council was also invited to approve for 2019/20:

(a)       an increase in the basic amount of Council Tax (i.e. the City’s element of council tax) by 3.49% (including 1.5% for adult social care);

(b)       the contingency sum of £1.6m;

(c)        delegation of authority to the City Treasurer, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to make allocations from the inflationary pressures and budgets to be allocated sum of £9.945m (as shown in Table 4 of those minutes). In doing so it was noted that the MHCC elements of those costs (Table 5) had been included in the Pooled Budget and were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18

The following procedure applies for this item:-

(i)           The Committee will receive a statement by the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources on the Executive’s budget proposals and the key issues underlining the budget process;

(ii)          The Committee is invited to consider any issues arising from individual Business Plans that chairs of scrutiny committees wish to draw specific attention to;

(iii)         The Committee is invited to receive a Statement from the Executive Member for Housing and Regeneration regarding the Housing Revenue Account calculations and to consider any amendment     proposed in relation to the Housing Revenue account 2019/20 to 2021/22;

(iv)         The Committee is invited to consider any amendments to the budget proposals; and

(v)          The Committee is invited to summarise its findings and formulate its recommendations to the Council meeting on 8 March 2018.

Further to minute RGSC/19/9, the Committee considered a report of the Chief Executive and the City Treasurer which provided an update on the Council’s financial position following scrutiny of the draft Budget proposals and Directorate Budget and Business Plan reports and accompanying delivery plans by all Scrutiny Committees.

The Committee received a statement from the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources on the Executive’s budget proposals and the key issues underlying the budget process.  In doing so, he thanked all the Scrutiny Committees for their input into scrutinising the budget proposals to date within each Directorate Business Plan and thanked Officers for the work that had gone into developing the Business Plans.  He also outlined the context of the proposed budget, in particular reiterating the challenges presented by funding reductions from national government.

The Chair then invited the other Scrutiny Chairs in attendance to bring to the Committees attention any concerns/issues that had arisen from their scrutiny of individual Business Plans.  There were no financial issues or concerns raised, however the following salient points were made:-

·                Further work was required in developing the Council’s living wage policy in order to ensure all Manchester residents had a sufficient level of income;

·                The investment into SEND provision was welcomed, however there needed to be greater efforts to  integrate SEND pupils into mainstream schools;

·                As part of the Dedicated Schools Grant, any surplus within schools’ budgets needed to be redistributed appropriately to ensure the funding was being used effectively; and

·                Scrutiny members had been consistently impressed with the outcomes being achieved and the delivery of quality services from limited investment caused by national cuts.

The Leader acknowledged that there was inadequate funding nationally and locally for SEND provision and that the use of the funding available needed to include improving the integration of SEND pupils into mainstream schools.  He commented that that this would be for the Director of Education, Director of Children’s Services, the Executive Member of Children and Young People and the Executive Member for Schools, Culture and Leisure to progress.

There were no questions from Committee Members on any of the Directorate Business Plans, which the Chair pointed out had all been scrutinised in various previous committees.

The Committee then received a statement from the Executive Member for Housing and Regeneration regarding the Housing Revenue Account calculations for 2019/20 to 2021/22 and its use.  She advised of the challenges the Council faced in delivering it housing ambition in light of the 1% cut in rental charges for social housing tenants, the impact of Universal Credit and the increase in communal heating charges which the Council would look to place a cap on the passing of this cost onto tenants.

In relation to the Housing Revenue Account, some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions were:-

·                What would the consequences be of the Government failing to keep its promise to increase social rents by 1% and Consumer Price Index (CPI);

·                The rent levels for social housing tenants,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18