Agenda and minutes

To confirm as a correct record

These minutes were approved and signed by the Chair.

Questions had been submitted by Councillors Cooper and Sayer. The questions and responses are provided at Appendix A to these minutes.

In accordance with the Committee’s decision of 8^th June 2021, Grant Thornton LLP UK had been commissioned to undertake this review following the discovery of a potential £920,000 budget gap in 2020/21. Grant Thornton had since completed its investigation and had made 15 recommendations for the Council to consider. Its report and presentation confirmed that:

          “there was an unfunded revenue deficit of £920,500 within the 2020/21 outturn position that was not detected during the year. The implications of this are that the Council’s outturn position is £920,500 less favourable than had been expected … It also appears that this error was not identified during the 2021/22 budget setting process and was therefore rolled forward as part of the baseline budget for 2021/22 that was approved by Council in February 2021. This means that its impact will continue to be relevant for the General Fund in each financial year until it is resolved.” 

The deficit arose from a reduction in notional pension costs which should have been offset to zero without any budgetary affect. Grant Thornton’s report set out the relevant chronology of events, together with key learning points and recommendations.

Grant Thornton were represented at the meeting (via Zoom) by Guy Clifton, Thomas Foster and Rob Hampton who presented their findings and responded to Members’ questions. Discussion took place regarding the sequence of events which culminated in the 2020/21 budget being approved. This included communications from the Interim Chief Finance Officer (who was in post at that time) to Members regarding the above-mentioned pension cost adjustment prior to the Full Council meeting on 13^th February 2020.

A range of views were expressed regarding the role of Members in such situations and the extent to which they should scrutinise and challenge information presented by professionally qualified Officers and advisers. This prompted suggestions that Strategy & Resources Committee members should be required to undergo training to provide them with a better understanding of the Council’s finances and to enable them to identify potential weaknesses.

The Chief Finance Officer presented her report in response to Grant Thornton’s findings which contained an action plan to implement all 15 recommendations. Her report confirmed that:

·           a detailed review of all 2021/22 budget lines for Month 6 (September 2021) would be undertaken to determine those which could be permanently reduced within the year to help form the basis of the 2022/23 budget setting

·           the balance of the funding gap would be met from General Fund reserves

·           any non-delivery of savings targets during 2021/22 would require a larger draw down of reserves

·           a simultaneous twin track approach to budget setting for 2022/23 would be undertaken; the ‘2^nd track’ being a more innovative way of making savings through a Council wide strategic improvement programme aimed at providing financial sustainability and resilience in the medium term through different delivery models and shared service opportunities

·           the planning service had not been given a budget target for 2022/23.

The Chief Finance Officer also advised that a fundamental review of internal  ...  view the full minutes text for item 107.

The Chair raised this issue as an urgent business item in light of a recent social media post which contained inaccurate information. He sought the Committee’s views on this matter. Various views were expressed, following which the Chair proposed that the need for a relevant policy should be referred to Group Leaders. This was agreed.   

            R E S O L V E D – that the need for a policy regarding the use of social media      by Councillors be referred to Group Leaders.