Agenda item

Cllr Fleur de Rhé-Philipe, (Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Risk) will introduce her portfolio and take questions.

Cllr Fleur de Rhé-Philipe, (Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Risk) introduced her portfolio and then took questions from the floor.

 

Points made by Cllr de Rhé-Philipe included:

 

• Wiltshire Council was committed to make savings and protecting vital services.

 

• Wiltshire Council would not be raising council tax next year.

 

• Over the next four years Central government grants to Wiltshire Council were to be cut by 28%.

 

• All Wiltshire Council departments were facing 12% cuts in their budgets.

 

• The Council may have to postpone some of its planned investment.

 

• There was a priority to protect the most vulnerable people in our community.

 

• Wiltshire Council was not looking to close libraries.

 

 

Questions raised from the floor included:

 

• Does Wiltshire Council expect that there will be any cuts to the education budget?

A – Too early to say.

 

• Will Academy Status Schools be beneficial to the education budget?

A – Too early to say, although schools transport could be an issue.

 

• Highways projects and cost benefits – Pewsey Road bridge.

A – When a bridge is failing then it has to be repaired.

 

Chairman thanked Cllr de Rhé-Philipe for attending the meeting.

 

 

A list of questions raised by Cllr Tony Prior and given to Cllr de Rhé-Philipe in advance of the meeting is set out below.

 

 

Q1. An awareness of the WC Finances is an important interest to parish council representatives now that we are in the second year of unitary.  Please could the cabinet rep respond to the following:

 

1. Is there an equivalent list to the previous “Current Spending on Council Services” for this year for area board information?

 

Q1.1 - We don't have a list equivalent for 2010-11, but attached is a different listing which agrees back to the councils original approved budget and also has 2009-10 for comparison.

 

 

2. I believe a figure of a saving of £18m was forecast following unitary re-organisation. What savings were achieved in the first year?

 

Q1.2 - The savings achieved & detailed with respect to unitary are as follows:

2009/10 = £8.2m (actual as per NI.179 submission)

2010/11 = £5.8m (forecast as per budget setting report)

 

 

3. What was the staff numbers for Wiltshire DC’s in 2008-09 and WC in 2009-10?

 

Q1.3 - The following figures show the number of staff in Districts and Wiltshire County Council during September 2008. Figures are non-schools.

 

 

On the 1^st of April most District Council staff transferred to the new Wiltshire Council giving a staff headcount of 5857. By March 2010 this staff headcount had reduced to 5638 (-219).

 

4. Were there any redundancies in the first year of unitary? If so, how much did they cost?

 

Q1.4 - The total cost in the 2009-10 of all for all redundancy and related retirements was £9.5m.  Note 2 to the accounts of the 2009-10 published financial statements, reported that the exceptional costs of severance relating to the move to “One Council” (LGR) was £7.1m, which can be analysed between redundancy at £6.4m and retirement at £0.7m.

 

The total costs in the accounts for the financial year 2010/11 to date are £2.2m. An analysis of the balances held in the accounts is shown below:

 

2009-10:

Redundancy & Severance = £7m

Augmented Grants Early Retirement = £0.8m

Retirement Grant = £1.7m

 

2010-11 to date:

Redundancy & Severance = £1.3m

Augmented Grants Early Retirement = £0.9m

 

The total number of employees made redundant since April 2009 is 130, of which the total number of redundancies relating to LGR is 62. 

 

Savings delivered

 

The total amount of annual savings (salary, national insurance & pension contributions) as a result of the 130 redundancies since April 2009 is £3,568,720.00. In respect of the 62 LGR redundancies since April 2009 the annual savings are £2,714,799.00

 

There were 24 redundancies in the district councils prior to vesting day, but as a result of LGR. These redundancies cost £3,600,000.00 and delivered annual savings of £1,612,000.00. These redundancies included three district council Chief Executives.

 

 

5. Will year 2 operation result in further cost savings?

 

Q1.5 - yes year 2 included further cost savings as indicated below (extract from one council submission document)

 

 

6. What plans are being laid to anticipate the cuts following the Govt Spending review? Is there an estimate of the lower operating costs due to the probable cuts? Eg library cuts.

 

Q1.6: planning is in progress to reduce budgets as a result of the government's Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). This is difficult though, because the final grant settlement for Wiltshire will not be published until late December or January. We expect to have to make budget reductions of 28-35%. This equates to £40 million plus next year.  

   

Year	09/10	10/11	11/12	12/13
Total (in £ millions)	6.63	14.125	17.76	18.145

 

 

 

7. How many redundancies are anticipated? What will be their cost?

 

Q1.7 - As part of the business plan, we are aiming to save £8million through making 240 management posts redundant. The cost of making these redundancies has been estimated at £5million.

 

Any further redundancies will determined by the business plan, which includes the need to find an additional £30m of savings in 2011/12, giving a total savings requirement of £70m in that period. Steps are being taken to identify areas where these savings will be found, and that may include further redundancies It is too early to place a number and cost on this.

 

 

Q2.  During the budget consultation last year the attached document was distributed.  According to the document, departmental funding totals £608.7 million.  However, in the presentation it was stated that Wiltshire Council’s budget was £833 million.  Please may we have a breakdown showing where the difference of £244.3 million was spent?

 

Q2 - Below is a high level analysis of the difference between the two figures, the original analysis of £608m "Current spending on Council Services" was carried out by the previous CFO and left out spending in certain areas mainly non-dept, front line services.

£60m - Central & Core Services (e.g. Resources Dept)

£21m - Capital Financing

£103m - Revenues & Benefits i.e. Housing & Ctax benefit payments 100% grant funded

£12m - Other Social Services

£13m - Targeted Services & Commissioning

£12m - Waste Disposal

Current Spending on Council Services

 

 

	£’ million
SCHOOLS (Schools are funded via the Dedicated Schools Grant (£244 million).In addition they receive other funding e.g. Learning and Skills Council funding for sixth formers to bring the total to £259 million. School funding is ring fenced to schools. The Council cannot spend less than the ring fence, however it could provide additional funding).	244
CHILDREN AND FAMILIES	106
YOUTH SERVICES	4
PUBLIC LIBRARIES	7
MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES/ARCHIVES AND PUBLIC RECORDS	1.7
ADULT SOCIAL CARE FOR OLDER PEOPLE	49
ADULT SOCIAL CARE FOR PEOPLE WITH MENTAL/PHYSICAL DISABILITIES	32
ADULT SOCIAL CARE FOR PEOPLE WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES	43
PROVIDING COMMUNITY SAFETY	1.4
RIGHTS OF WAY, FOOTPATHS AND BRIDLEWAYS	0.4
ROAD SAFETY TRAINING/TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND CONGESTION	0.7
STREET CLEANING	3
MAINTENANCE OF EXISTING ROADS	17
NEW ROAD BUILDING AND ROAD IMPROVEMENTS	20
BUS SERVICES	6
HOUSEHOLD REFUSE COLLECTION/ DOORSTEP REYCYCLING/ RECYCLING CENTRES	22
SPORTS AND LEISURE CENTRES/ PARKS AND OPEN SPACES	10
TRADING STANDARDS/ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH	5
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The Council invests £1.3 million in Economic Development which levers in several £ million external funding (e.g. the future jobs projects)	1.5
PLANNING	8
HOUSING	27