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 2022/23 budget process saw the Council develop savings and efficiency plans of over £42.3m over the three years to 2025/26 of which there were savings options of £2.191m for the Adult Social Care directorate.  The provisional financial settlement announced on 19 December 2022 reflected a change in government policy in relation to funding inflation and social care pressures. This had given the opportunity to review the quantum and phasing of savings and it was now proposed that options of £36.2m were progressed, of which £0.646m were attributable to the Neighbourhoods directorate.

The Neighbourhood Directorate had a net budget of c£130.3m, with 1,481 budgeted FTE’s.  As part of identifying options the initial priority had been to protect service delivery wherever possible

The following proposed savings had been put forward:-

As part of the budget proposals a further £1m investment into waste and street cleaning was proposed, this would support Basic Services and Street Cleaning and was in addition to the £1m investment into waste and street cleaning put forward as part of the 2022/23 budget

It was also proposed that there would be a further investment of £1.2m to support specific activity in and around the City Centre, District Centres and key arterial routes.

In relation to the annual waste levy costs, these were driven by forecast tonnages of waste to be disposed of and the costs of disposal.  The levy was set by GMCA and based on latest forecasts it is anticipated that this would increase in 2023/24, with the increase to Manchester being £1.024m. Further increases of £1.916m had been assumed split over 2024/25 and 2025/26 and these increases were reflected in the current budget plans for those years.

The budget position also reflected a one-off return of waste reserves from GMCA of £25m, of which Manchester’s share was £4.5m. This has been reflected in the corporate budget to reduce the overall budget gap in 2023/24.

There was no projected workforce impact of activity to deliver the savings.  Effective and robust workforce planning arrangements were in place.

It was note that as development continued across the city this could lead to increased growth pressures for Neighbourhood Services as the number of households grew significantly. These increased demands would include compliance and enforcement, waste collection and disposal and street cleaning.

It was noted that the budget reports had also been considered at a recent meeting of the Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee (Minute CESC/23/11).and the Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee (Minute ECCSC/23/11) and both committees had endorsed the proposals in the report.

Councillor Leech commented on the proposed budget savings attributed to the review of opening hours of the Art Gallery.  He also welcomed the proposal to remove the charge for replacement recycling bins within this year’s budget until the next financial year but felt that the charge should be removed permanently.  In addition, he also sought clarification on what the extra investment in street cleansing had been spent on.

Decision

The Executive approve the Directorate budget proposals as set out in the report.