LONDON BOROUGH OF ENFIELD BUDGET CONSULTATION
To receive a presentation on the LB Enfield 2018/19 budget proposals.
Minutes:
The Board received a presentation on LB Enfield’s 2018/19 budget and consultation process from Jayne Fitzgerald, Head of Strategic Finance.
Budget Presentation
Jayne Fitzgerald highlighted the following:
? The Council spending and income were set out, noting that the authority was not permitted to make savings on all areas.
? Government funding would continue to decline to 2019/20.
? The impact of government funding reductions was described; and that since 2010 LB Enfield had delivered £161M of savings.
? There were demographic pressures, with the borough’s population continuing to rise and with large proportions of younger and older people in comparison with the rest of London.
? Enfield was the 12th most deprived borough in London on indices of multiple deprivation. Temporary accommodation was becoming an increasing pressure.
? Other pressures included pay awards and national minimum wage/London living wage; inflation and changes in interest rates; pension fund; and funding changes from central government.
? The Council faced a difficult challenge in setting a balanced budget. Savings were being delivered across all service areas. There was an increasing emphasis on developing income generating proposals and commercial opportunities.
? Consultation on the budget was running for 11 weeks, from 23/10/17 to 08/01/18. There were a number of ways it could be accessed, but the focus was on completing it online. A ‘Money Matters’ section was included in ‘Our Enfield’ magazine which was delivered to all households. Two public meetings were scheduled, on 13 and 14 December at Community House, Edmonton and at Enfield Civic Centre.
? The questions in the consultation covered prioritisation of services for protection and services for savings; services which could be made available online; and suggestions for ways to raise income to minimise the effect of funding reductions.
? So far there had been 299 responses to the consultation online and 16 other. All responses would be collated and fed into a report to Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s budget meeting on 18 January, and taken into account when the budget was set by full Council in February.
Questions / Comments
1. In comparison to last year, the consultation response rate was doing relatively well. The communications team were also monitoring responses weekly and nudging through social media.
2. It was confirmed that all voluntary and community sector organisations had been written to for consultation, and a special budget consultation document was being prepared for the Youth Parliament. Officers acknowledged points in respect of accessibility of the consultation and they were available to make presentations to meetings if invited.
3. It was confirmed that income raising could include putting up fees and charges, but there was also emphasis on commercial opportunities and new initiatives.
4. The Chair thanked officers for attending and all comments would be fed into the consultation and report to Council’s budget setting meeting.