Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods)

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) which set out the priorities for the services in the remit of this Committee and detailed the initial revenue budget changes proposed by officers.

Key points and themes in the report included:

• Service overview and priorities;
• Service budget and proposed changes;
• Workforce; and
• Future opportunities and risks.

The Deputy Leader expressed concern at the cuts that the Council had been faced with over 12 years and the cumulative effect of this, and the factors which were contributing towards people becoming homeless.  She highlighted that it was not proposed to reduce the gross homelessness budget as this was an important area; however, it was proposed that, by investing in work to prevent homelessness, savings could be made over the next few years on the amount of money spent on housing people in bed-and-breakfast accommodation and other temporary accommodation.

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

• To support investment in work to prevent homelessness;
• How much certainty there was about the potential saving from a change in the Allocations Procedure to allow people to be classified as Homeless at Home at the Prevention stage, as referred to in Appendix 1;
• How much certainty there was that savings to bed-and-breakfast costs could be made through investing in prevention, given the complexity of the issues relating to homelessness and the cost-of-living crisis; and
• To request that the report on Homelessness which was scheduled for the Committee’s January 2023 meeting include information about the work being done to factor in the additional challenges associated with the cost-of-living crisis.

The Chair recognised the hard work of those working in the Homelessness Service and asked that the Committee’s thanks be passed on to the frontline staff.

The Executive Member for Finance and Resources stated that the reports presented were currently officer proposals only. He stated that the Government’s Autumn Statement and final financial settlement were still to be announced.  He stated that the public consultation on the Council’s Budget had commenced and would run until 7 January 2023, adding that difficult decisions would need to be taken and it was important to hear the views of Manchester residents.  He commented that the financial situation the Council found itself in was not the fault of the Council, adding that the Council was a well-managed and financially responsible organisation and this could be evidenced.  He stated that the fault was the direct result of ideological decisions taken by the government over the previous decade.  He stated that the budget cuts imposed on Manchester had been unfair.  He stated that, if Manchester had received the average cuts to funding, the Council budget would be £77m per year better off.  He stated that it was calculated that the gap in Local Authority funding nationally was in excess of £3bn, adding that it was estimated that one in six councils could run out of money next year.  He called upon the government to protect councils as these provided essential services for some of the most vulnerable in society, especially in the context of the cost-of-living crisis.  The Chair supported these comments.

Decision

To note the report, subject to the above comments, and to note that the Committee will be receiving a further report on homelessness at its January meeting.