Report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development) attached

The report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development) explained how the budget proposals for the Directorate had been developed.

The Growth and Development Directorate had a gross budget of £35.6m and a net income budget of £11.3m and employed 439 FTEs.  In addition, Highways services and parking services and CCTV had a gross budget of £36.2m and net budget of £13.3m and employed FTE

Savings of £1.020m had already been approved as part of the 2023/24 budget and were to be delivered through increased annual rental income of £0.985m from Manchester Airport Group as well as £35k increased Development fee income for Highways.  The increases were based on estimates provided by the Airport and achievement of this income was dependent on performance being in line with or better than the forecasts provided. The savings were phased at £170k in 2024/25 and £0.815m in2025/26.  £35k of savings to be achieved in 2024/25 would be through increased development fee income for Highways

In addition to the already approved savings, and in support of the work required to balance the overall council budget, further options for savings had been developed and the areas considered include the following:-

·            A review of workforce structures and capacity alongside taking a realistic view on the ability to fill longstanding vacant posts; and

·            A review of all income generation from sales, fees and charges and whether there are opportunities to increase charges in line with inflation.

A summary of the current budgets for sales, fees and charges across Growth and Development Directorate was detailed as follows:-

It was noted that the Directorate was pivotal in driving Sustainable Economic Growth of the city to benefit everyone. In order to continue delivering in these key areas there would be a need for increased capacity, and this was estimated to cost in the region of £0.745m.  In light of the current overall Council budget position, it was not possible to provide additional investment to fund these resources, but the services had now started to review all existing resources in order to understand how existing resources could be reallocated to deliver this agenda

The budget report had also been considered at a recent meeting of the Economy and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee and the committee had endorsed the proposals in the report (Minute ESC/24/10).

Decision

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