Agenda item

The Assistant Director, Finance and Audit, set out the Council’s medium and longer term financial assumptions and the different approaches the Council would take to manage these. The Council’s financial position needed to be considered by being in the middle of a long term process of contracting public spending. Since 2010, Government spending on Local Government as a whole had reduced by 25% and the impact on the Council had been significant.

Analysis from the Local Government Association highlighted that the Council was at a greater risk than many other Councils of delivering its services within the funding available to it. It was explained that this was due to rising pressures from within the Council services in Children’s and Adults social care but also because the Council was exposed to risk from business rates and falling government grants. Although many Councils were facing a risk from one of these funding sources, Slough faced a significant risk from both these areas due to it having a large business community and a higher level of financial need in comparison to other Councils.

It was predicted that the Council tax and retained business rates over the period of the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) were likely to increase form 63% to almost 80% of the Council’s income and therefore result in the Council being much less reliant upon Government funding. To reflect this the Council had made retaining existing businesses and attracting new businesses as well as ensuring a strong supply of housing, two of the key outcomes in the Council’s Five Year Plan. 

In the ensuing discussion, a Member expressed concern relating to risk exposure around business rates, specifically referring to the potential loss of Poyle Industrial Estate if the planned expansion at Heathrow was implemented.  The Assistant Director informed the Committee that  business rates would be re-evaluated by the Government in 2020 and that the Council had over £1 million in reserves to address the issue of volatility in business rates. 

Responding to the impact the externalisation of the Children’s Social Care would have upon the Council’s finances, Members were advised that the Council would be presented with a new financial challenge to ensure that the provision and cost of these services remained affordable in light of the other pressures placed upon the Council for its services over the MTFS. 

Further details were requested regarding how the proposed savings of £2 million and 20% reduction in the Council’s corporate footprint within four years would be achieved. It was noted that savings would be achieved through the disposal of surplus and unsustainable premises, with a view to consolidating staff to a smaller footprint.

Resolved -  That the report be noted.