Report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer attached

The report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer and City Solicitor 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 £10.26m (including Corporate Core savings of £6.024m and Traded Services savings of £4.236m).  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 £7.712 were attributable to the Corporate Core directorate.

The revised core budget saving proposals would be delivered through a combination of:

·                     Transformation delivered through the Future Shape Programme – ensuring that the quality of Council services, resident experiences and outcomes were improved, whilst improving council efficiency and reducing costs resulting in approximately £5m savings over a five year period

·                     Review of workforce structures and capacity alongside taking a realistic view on the ability to fill longstanding vacancies; a review of service areas to identify efficiencies or opportunities for income generation; and delivering a corporate programme of work to ensure the basics were right, sound and competitive procurement, approach to managing inflation, ensuring income budgets were maximised and charges appropriate which would result in a further £3.46m of savings made up of a combination of £170k additional income generation and £3.29m efficiencies

The report also identified that there were growth and investment pressures of £1.777m that needed to be considered as part of the budget setting process:-

There were also some new pressures that had been identified for 2023/24 and beyond which included:-

·                     Information Technology £0.75m - as part of the ICT strategy there had been the roll out of the end user device strategy. In order to provide an ongoing refresh of kit and additional revenue requirements of c£0.75m would be required from 2024/25;

·                     Additional security software - there had been increased requirements in respect of ensuring systems remained secure, and to avoid any security compromises, additional software had been installed in 2022/23 and the full year costs in 2023/24 would be c£461k per annum;

·                     Financial Management increased licence software to support the implementation of Civica costs £20k; and

·                     HR/OD £46k reduced payroll income as schools use alternative providers.

Additional investment of £3.55m had also been identified in direct response to the unprecedented pressures facing our residents from the current cost of living crisis. 

In addition to the Corporate Core, the report provided details of budget proposals in regards to the Operations and Commissioning budgets.  Based on the most up to date information and projections, the likely shortfall in car parking income in 2023/24 was likely to be around £1.9m.  It was proposed that this would be mitigated through bringing together off street and on street parking and making a reduced contribution to the parking reserve.  The parking reserve was forecasted to be c£6.3m at the close of 2022/23, although based on current activity levels it would reduce to nil by 2027/28.

It was noted that the report had also been considered at a recent meeting of the Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee where the committee had endorsed the budget proposals (Minute RGSC/23/24)

Councillor Leech sought clarification as to whether Gorton Hub would become self-financing in future years or whether further running cost support would be required.  He also commented that whilst the additional support to VCS Groups was a welcome addition, some wards across Manchester were better represented than others and queried if an equal balance of this funding would be applied.

Decision

The Executive approve the budget proposals as detailed in the report.