Agenda and minutes

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)              if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Members:-

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Committee;

(b)               all other Members present.

RESOLVED:  To note that there were no declarations of interests made by Members.

The Chair welcomed the Leader of the Council, Portfolio Holder for Finance, the Chief Executive and an officer to the meeting and outlined the process to be followed for the asking of questions.

The Leader of the Council gave a brief introduction and confirmed that, whilst not happy with the current position, his Group had agreed that Council Tax be increased by 2%, subject to approval by Council.  In the previous year, the budget gap had been £11 million and this year it was £28 million.  There had been a 35% increase in the number of children aged between 0?4 and the Council also faced additional pressures due to the increase in the number of older people.  There were also implications arising as a result of the localisation of Council Tax benefits.

The Chief Executive stated that the budget process had been tough and that the savings target had increased significantly due to factors outside the Council’s control as has been mentioned by the Leader.  The commissioning process had highlighted that many of the Council’s services were low cost.  The changes in terms and conditions had been difficult for staff and a number of employees had left the organisation which had an impact on capacity.  He wished to place on record his gratitude to those staff for their service whilst there were more financial challenges ahead.  He added that he remained optimistic that there would be opportunities for the organisation ahead eg regeneration/growth agenda, community budgets etc.

Members asked a series of questions and received responses as follows:

Can you provide an update on the impact of the Local Government Financial Settlement in particular on the level of Council Tax?

The Leader stated that whilst Harrow was an outer London borough it had inner London problems as advised in his introduction.  The Portfolio Holder added that the late receipt of the settlement on 19 December 2012 had made decision making in relation to the budget difficult.

What is the residual budget gap? In the context of the comments that services which are important to residents will be safeguarded, how does the Council intend to bridge this funding gap?

The Portfolio Holder advised that the budget would be published for the February Cabinet but that it would balance over 2 years.  In years 3 and 4 there would be a £30 million budget gap.

Have you seen the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) Regulations 2012 which has a section on access to documents by members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee?  Are the Commissioning papers in the control of the Executive and do they relate to business transacted at a council meeting?  How do you expect this Committee to scrutinise the budget if it could not see the options considered by the Administration?

The Chief Executive responded that the Regulations provided for greater transparency and access to documents and, whilst he was aware of the request for information from the Member, the advice from Legal Services  ...  view the full minutes text for item 350.