Agenda item - London Borough of Enfield Budget Consultation 2016/17

Agenda item

London Borough of Enfield Budget Consultation 2016/17

To receive a presentation on the London Borough of Enfield 2016/17 budget proposals. 

Minutes:

The Board received a presentation on Enfield’s 2016/17 budget consultation from Isabel Brittain, Assistant Director Finance.  Copies of the presentation slides are attached to the agenda or available from the Board Secretary. 

 

1.               Budget Presentation

 

Isabel Brittain highlighted the following: 

 

·       The presentation had also been given to a selection of focus groups and to area meetings organised by associate cabinet members. 

 

·       The consultation survey had also been delivered to every household in the borough and was available on line.  Over 300 responses had already been received.

 

·       All the responses will be fed in to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Budget meeting in the New Year.  

 

·       The Council’s gross expenditure for 2015/16 is £1,064 billion.  Much of this is pass-ported directly on to services including schools and benefits.  The council’s controllable budget is only about a quarter of the whole amount.

 

·       The money received from Government has since 2010 has been, and is anticipated to be, going down and is predicted to be reduced cumulatively by £71.2 million by 2019/20.  Significant savings will need to be made in all areas. 

 

·       Other budget pressures include increases in care costs and additional responsibilities for the Council, increasing demand for council services due to population growth and an ageing population, increased costs for new borrowing for capital investment, increased costs of running services due to inflation and an upturn in the property market increasing rents. 

 

·       The Council will know for certain how much the Government grant is likely to be, in Mid-December 2015. 

 

·       The possibility of raising the Council tax to bring in more money is being considered, but this will not bring in a large amount as the amount that the tax can be increased by, without a referendum, is capped at 1.9%.

 

2.               Questions/Comments

 

2.1           Enfield received £550 per head from Government compared to Islington which received £900 per head.  Enfield suffers from the damping formula which means that they receive £10 million per year less than the Government judged was needed. 

 

2.2           By 2020 the Government’s long term strategy is that the percentage of money spent by the state will fall from 42% (in 2001) of gross domestic product to 36% (in 2020).  This compares with 52% in France.  As welfare, health and education have been protected, savings will have to be made from every other area.  Even if the economy is buoyant services will suffer. 

 

2.3           Long term the Council is trying to counter some of the effect by making capital investments in areas such as Meridian Water the Electric Quarter in Ponders End, creating more jobs and housing.  Difficult decisions will have to be made.  By law the Council cannot run a deficit and has to set a balanced budget. 

 

2.4           The Government has also promised to allow Council’s to keep their business rates, but how this is to be done has not been decided.

 

2.5           £70m from a budget of £250m represents a near 30% cut. 

 

2.6           To note that in the Comprehensive Spending Review CRS cuts to public health had been announced.  Eventually it is intended that this budget will disappear and public health funding will come from the business rate receipts. 

Supporting documents: