Issue - meetings

Purpose of report: Scrutiny of the Draft Budget and Medium-Term Financial Strategy

Witnesses:

David Lewis, Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources

Nicola O’Conner - Strategic Finance Business Partner

Rachel Wigley – Director Finance Insight and Performance

Nicola Kilvington – Director of Corporate Strategy and Policy

Tony Orzieri – Strategic Finance Business Partner

Louise Lawson – Strategic Finance Business Partner

Denise Turner Stewart, Cabinet Member for Customers and communities

Natalie Bramhall, Cabinet Member for Property and Waste (Remote)

Kevin Deanus – Cabinet Member for Fire and Rescue, and Resilience

Matt Furniss, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport & Economic Growth

Key Discussions:

1. A Member asked how the Council’s financial position compared to other Councils and if transformation activities were on track to achieve savings. The Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources answered that the Council was on a sound financial footing and that transformational activities would take place over a 5-year period but faced variable challenges such as a new government and changes in grants and funding. The Director Finance Insight and Performance noted that compared to other County Councils, Surrey was fairing a lot better, and the Council had worked diligently over the last five years to improve their financial position. The Member asked for clarification on a comparative league table, the Director of Finance agreed to send information on borrowing requirements compared to the revenue budget.

2. A Member asked what potential deterioration of services that fell under the remit of the Committee could be expected considering the year-on-year deterioration in budget. The Executive Director of Environment, Infrastructure & Growth noted that the focus was on finding efficiencies in the budget and driving more value out of existing contracts such as Waste contracts, not service cuts. The Executive Director emphasised that there wasn’t an area that fell in the remit of the Committee that would see a service reduction. The Member asked if the Council was still trying to lobby Government for a better funding formula for road maintenance. The Executive Director noted that the Leader of the Council was chairing the County Council Network, and the Council was exploring a host of solutions to improve funding.

3. The Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport & Economic Growth noted that the funding formula criteria had been raised with the Secretary of State for Transport, who was open to the idea of changing the formula and offered to report the outcomes of meetings with Department for Transport officials.

4. A Member asked if the Council was confident in the assumptions that had been made around non-pay inflation. The Strategic Finance Business Partner noted that the level of inflation had a huge impact on budget pressures and that the impact had been significant. The corporate non-pay assumption was 5% in the draft budget and would be reviewed ahead of the Final Budget proposals which were due to be presented to Council in February.  It was noted that the corporate inflation assumptions were only used where there was no other insight. Inflation on food, fuel and in specific markets such as children’s social care where rates exceeded the corporate assumption.  In  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39