Report of the Strategic Director Neighbourhood Services

The Council is forecasting an estimated budget shortfall of £44m in 2023/24, £85m in 2024/25, and £112m by 2025/26. After the use of c£16m smoothing reserves in each of the three years, this reduces to £28m in 2023/24, £69m in 2024/25 and £96m by 2025/26. Officers have identified potential savings options to reduce the budget gap totalling £42.3m over three years.

This report sets out the priorities for the services in the remit of this committee and details the initial revenue budget changes proposed by officers.

Even after these proposals there remains a budget gap of £7m to close to get to a balanced budget in 2023/24 and further savings and cuts options will be required to be worked between now and January and be reported back to Scrutiny committees in February. Each scrutiny committee is invited to consider the current proposed changes which are within its remit and to make recommendations to the Executive before it agrees to the final budget proposals in February 2023.

The Committee considered the report of the Strategic Director Neighbourhood Services that described that this report was the first in the cycle for the budget programme 2023-26. It set out an overview of the services within the remit of this scrutiny committee and their key priorities. The budget growth assumptions in the Medium Term Financial Plan were set out. The report provided a draft set of officer proposals for further savings for 2023-26, developed in the context of the financial challenge facing the Council.

Key points and themes in the report included:

·         Providing an overview of the service and priorities;

·         A description of the service budget and the proposed changes;

·         Describing the proposed savings programme;

·         Workforce implications;

·         Equality and Anti Poverty Impact; and

·         Future opportunities and risk.

The Chair in opening this item of business stated that the Leader, Councillor Craig, had written an open letter to the PM, Rishi Sunak to discuss the role cities could play in addressing the urgent challenge of climate change and what the Government needed to do to support it.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were: -

·         The Committee condemned the government for failing to adequately fund Local Authorities;

·         Stating that the current government was not committed to addressing climate change;

·         Noting that the continued imposed budget cuts on the city could potentially hamper the good work underway by the Council to deliver on its carbon reduction ambitions;

·         Noting that these budget cuts were being imposed at the time of a cost of living crisis;

·         Noting that continued imposed budget cuts harmed the residents of the city;

·         Consideration needed to be given to maximising revenue to the Council from commercial events that were delivered in Manchester parks;

·         Information was requested on the decision not to host bonfire events across Manchester parks;

·         A concern was expressed that charging residents for replacement recycling bins could result in increased incidents of flytipping;

·         Were abandoned domestic bins reused;

·         Could any savings be realised through a review of the Biffa contract;

·         An assurance was sought that there was currently no proposal to withdraw any of the Climate Change Priorities listed; and

·         Concern was raised in regard to the proposal to temporally suspend gulley cleaning, especially at this time of year.

In response to the comments and questions from the Committee, the Parks Lead informed the Members that an assessment of the savings achieved through withdrawing bonfire events compared to any further demand of community safety interventions, noting the discussion regarding anti-social behaviour associated with bonfire period, would be undertaken. She advised that analysis of this would inform future budget proposals. The Executive Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods stated that bonfires also needed to be considered in terms of the environment and emissions. Members were also advised that a commercial strategy related to parks did exist, noting that this was in the process of being reviewed. Members recommended that an update report on this would be provided to the Committee at an appropriate time, adding that it was important to recognise that parks were invaluable spaces for residents of Manchester, especially at this time of a cost of living crisis. 

In response to the discussion on bins, the Director of Commercial and Operations, Waste Recycling and Street Cleaning advised that where possible, abandoned bins were collected, emptied, cleaned and reused, adding that there was a significant cost associated to this process. He advised that most other authorities charged for replacement recycling bins and there currently was a charge for replacement grey bins. The Committee were advised that the Biffa contract was closely monitored and opportunities for efficiency savings were always considered, noting that there were currently no budget savings proposals to be achieved via this contract.

The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer stated that there were no proposals to reduce the resources allocated to deliver the Climate Change Priorities, however, she expressed caution that difficult decisions could not be ruled out in future years.

The Executive Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods stated that a briefing note on the approach to gulley cleansing would be circulated following the meeting.

In closing this item of business, the Chair noted that the discussion had prompted requests for additional reports, namely the item on parks and commercial activity and how this could be used to generate income and also a report on the incidents of flytipping and the introduction of charging for replacement domestic recycling bins. The Chair advised that the work programme would be updated to include the items requested by Members.

Decision

To note the report.