The report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer was to follow and is now enclosed.

The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer presented a review of the 2020/21 revenue budgets. The report provided an overview of the Council’s financial position as at the end of December 2020 and the work to develop a balanced budget for 2020/21. The report continued to project a balanced budget outturn for 2020/21, reflecting what had been the situation reported in December 2020 (Minute Exe/20/134). The forecast budget shortfall from COVID-19 pressures was £58m this financial year, which was being mitigated through the Council’s share of the sales, fees and charges emergency funding. The overall impact of the pandemic was forecast as being £164.4m of which £23.6m related to additional expenditure and £140.8m to loss of income. Of that total, £58m related to 2020/21 and the rest was to have a significant impact on the 2021/22 and future budgets, as the other business of the meeting was to show.

Additional COVID-19 related funding

The report detailed the additional grants that had been announced or received from the Government since the previous report in December. These were

·         Adult Social Care - £1.333m Workforce Capacity Fund to enable the council to supplement and strengthen adult social care staff capacity to ensure the delivery of safe and continuous care.

·         Adult Social Care - £0.842m to support increased testing in care homes, with the bulk of this to be passed on to the care homes

·         Neighbourhood Services – £0.882m for cultural recovery to Manchester Art Gallery being severely financially impacted by COVID-19.

·         Neighbourhood Services - £0.621m Community Champions Fund to be used to work with community-based organisations to protect those most at risk from COVID-19.

·         Corporate Core - £0.379m Self Isolation Support for the administration of the Test and Trace Support Payment Scheme, which awards £500 to some individuals who are told to self-isolate by the NHS Test and Trace or the COVID-19 App.

·         Corporate Core Administering Business Rates Relief New Burden - £12k for the software and administration costs of implementing the extended retail relief scheme.

·         Corporate Core Council Tax Hardship New Burdens - £58k for the software and administrative costs associated with implementing the Council Tax hardship fund, which deducts £150 from council tax support claimant's council tax liability.

·         Corporate Core Local Authority Discretionary Grant Fund New Burdens - £101k for the administration of the Local Authority Discretionary Grant scheme, which has provided £5.4m of support to 957 businesses not registered for business rates bills.

The use of all those grants was supported.

The report also explained that the Government had announced that the Council was to receive an Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) top-up of £4.911m. This was in addition to the £11.698m already received, giving total ARG funding of £16.609m. The ARG could be used to facilitate a discretionary grant scheme to support those businesses that are closed but do not have a rateable value, or those who are severely impacted rather than closed and are not eligible for other forms of support. It was proposed and agreed that the support offered be expanded to include:

·         £2.5m for strategically important cultural, entertainment or convention facilities in the city,

·         £1.0m additional support to charities,

·         £2.0m for strategically economically important businesses in the city,;

·         £1.9m for childcare and day care providers,

·         £460k for independent retailers with no business rates liability that have been mandated to close and can show fixed property related costs,

·         £1.0m for taxi drivers, and

·         £4.74m for businesses affected by a reduction in daytime or commuter trade, within the tourism and culture sector, in the airport supply chain, and self- employed company directors of small businesses without fixed property related costs.

Budgets to be allocated

When setting the 2020/21 budget the Council has agreed to hold some funds for contingencies, and other money that was to be allocated throughout the year. The report proposed two further use of some of these budgets to be allocated. These were agreed:

·         £15,000 for Education Short breaks, being a 10% uplift due to increase in National Living Wage and the implications of Pension auto enrolment on the befriending service which supports many children and young people who may be on the edge of care.

·         £441,000 for inflationary increase on the waste and street cleaning contract, mainly relating to pay award increases.

Virements

The report proposed four funding virements. All those were supported and agreed:

·         £489,000 from City Centre Regeneration to Policy, Partnership and Resource for the reallocation of the High Street Recovery Grant

·         £276,000 from Facilities Management to several directorates, being the reallocation of security cost increases

·         £387,000 from Policy, Partnership and Resource to City Centre Regeneration being the transfer of staff from planning and policy to City Centre Regeneration

·         £190,000 from Education Attendance (within Children's Services non pay to pay budget transfer). The Early Help Hub and Prosecutions activity within One Education had now ended, the services had been brought in-house and this transferred the non-pay budgets to the pay budgets.

Other Non-COVID Related Grants in Addition to that Already Planned

The report explained that notifications had been received in relation to specific external grants. These allocations had not been confirmed at the time of the 2020/21 budget setting processes, so confirmation of them was now being sought. These two were both supported:

·         £854,000 for MHCLG Rough Sleeping and alcohol treatment for Taskforce Priority areas which have the highest numbers of people sleeping rough who have been moved into emergency accommodation during the pandemic.

·         £34,000 DEFRA port health transition fund to improve performance and capacity for the airport team to deal with additional work created by EU exit.

Decisions

1.         To note the global revenue monitoring report and a forecast outturn position of a breakeven position.

2.         To approve additional COVID-19 grants to be reflected in the budget, with £1.333m workforce capacity fund and £0.842m to support increased testing in care homes applied to the Adult Social Care as set out above.

3.         To approve application of Additional Restriction Grant support for businesses, as set out above.

4.         To approve the use of budgets to be allocated, as set out above.

5.         To approve budget virements as described above.

6.         To approve the use of unbudgeted external grant funding (non COVID-19) as set out above.