Agenda item

Report of the Chamberlain, the Assistant Town Clerk and Culture Mile Director, the

Director of Open Spaces and the Director of Children’s and Community Services.

Members considered a report of the Chamberlain, the Assistant Town Clerk (Culture Mile Director), Director of Open Spaces and Director of Community and Children’s Services, which presented the annual submission of the Revenue and Capital Budgets overseen by the Department of Culture, Heritage and Libraries, prepared within the resources allocated to the three Chief Officers.  Details of the Committee’s Draft Capital Budgets were also provided. 

The Chairman opened the discussion by making the following points:

1. The cuts being proposed by the officers are in response to a corporate wide instruction to cut budgets by 2% p.a. for the next 3 years with no allowances made for pay increases and external inflation so in real terms the cuts are circa 5% pa.
   
   
2. This follows on from the successful accomplishment of a very challenging SBR programme by the officers which have reduced Culture Heritage and Libraries (CHL) Local Risk costs by £1.35 million (circa 20%) over the last 3 years (2015/16 to 2017/18).  The impact of the latest cuts on CHL is greater than a number of other cultural departments as the bulk of the finance for activities is derived from the City’s funding and none of these cuts can be carried forward as reserves.
   
   
3. The Chairman stated that he fully supports a process and corporate culture to continually scrutinise costs and to make efficiency savings wherever possible and was not seeking to make a special case for the budgets under the committee’s control or to ask for additional funding.

4. However, the Chairman disagreed with the current budgeting process which he described as salami slicing. As a one-off emergency exercise this approach might be defensible but not as an on-going ‘Business as Usual’ process.

5. He disagreed with the assertion that these cuts which in real terms are approximately 5% pa can be easily accommodated.

6. The proposed reductions will now leave some departments unable to accommodate probable unplanned changes such as drops in visitor numbers due to further terrorist incidents or even unexpected maternity leaves.

7. Despite claims that the cuts are not imposed across the board - they have been in CHL, to do otherwise when the teams have been moved into 3 separate areas is now practically impossible and in any case to try would be a distraction.

8. The Chairman suggested that a much more intelligent way of ensuring efficiency and effectiveness of spend would be to adopt a zero-based budgeting approach for revenue spending across the whole organisation – a process which is widely used outside the Corporation. The Chairman asked members for their views on the following 2 points:

A - Whether the cuts proposed for 2018/19 can be accommodated without unacceptable consequences.

B – Whether the continuation of these cuts for a further 2 years is acceptable and, if not, should we seek as a committee to get the current approach changed.

During the subsequent debate and discussion, the following points were noted.

Several members spoke to agree with the points made by the Chairman.

a)     Members suggested that continual small cuts could potentially damage public services and staff morale and impact on footfall targets.

b)    Members noted new information that any redundancies would be funded centrally and not locally. 

c)     It would have been helpful for the report to have highlighted the ‘pinch-points’ and described the consequences of the proposed cuts.

d)    The Deputy Chairman of the Finance Committee, also a Member of this Committee, reminded Members that the Efficiency Plan allowed for access to the Business Rates Pool.  The Chamberlain was also working with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Finance Committee, to scrutinise those forecasts and outturns which showed a surplus in the round, with an allowance for prudence.

e)     Members noted a genuine efficiency saving in respect of recent improvements in security at the Guildhall Library.

f)      The Directors present confirmed that they could accommodate the mandated budgets cuts in year 1 without damaging consequences, but in future years Members might need to accept cuts in services if the current process was continued. Members noted that they would receive further reports, should decisions require a focus on priorities.

RESOLVED, that:

1.     The provisional 2018/19 revenue budget be approved for submission to the Finance Committee.

2. The Town Clerk, in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Culture, Heritage and Libraries Committee, be authorised to agree any revisions to these budgets, to allow for any further implications arising from a pay and prices uplift being agreed at Resource Allocation Sub Committee in January 2018, changes to Corporate Projects, other reviews and changes to the Cyclical Works Programme; subject to Members of the Culture, Heritage and Libraries Committee receiving a further report, clearly setting out the revisions made to the Budget.

3.     The Draft Capital Budget be approved.

4.     The Building Repairs and Maintenance asset verification exercise being undertaken by the City Surveyor be noted and any minor changes for 2017/18 latest and 2018/19 original budgets, arising from this exercise, be delegated to the Chamberlain.