Issue - meetings

To consider the Council’s budget and level of Council Tax for 2018-19.

Members are asked to note that the recommendations in the report were approved for reference on to Council by Cabinet on 12 February 2018.

The Council received a report from the Chief Finance Officer setting out the Council’s budget proposals for 2018/19 along with an update on the medium term budget outlook.

In accordance with the procedural motion agreed at the start of the meeting, the Mayor invited Councillor Butt to present the report setting out the budget and Council Tax proposals for 2018-19.

Councillor Butt began by taking the opportunity to thank the following councillors from his group not standing in the May 2018 local election for their hard work and dedication in serving their local residents and the borough during their time as councillors:

Councillors Bradley, Harrison, Hossain, Hoda-Benn, Stopp, Khan, Thomas, Eniola, Pitruzella, Collier and Moher

The Council joined him in thanking and wishing all retiring councillors best wishes.

Moving on to then focus on the budget proposals, the Leader advised that this represented the final budget of the current Administration and had been delivered against a period of ongoing austerity.  The Council had once again, with prudent management of its limited resources been able to recommend a balanced budget which offered the maximum protection to those most in need of support.  He pointed out, however, that this had not been easy to achieve, with the Council and public sector in general continuing to be hit hard by reductions in Government funding and the accompanying need to manage resulting deficits.  For some the pressure had been too great, with the recent examples of Northampton and Surrey County Council referred to.  Whilst it may have been possible for these pressures to have been dealt with differently, the Leader felt the underlying problem had been caused by the Government’s austerity programme and way in which they had chosen to fund public services.

He hoped that the difficulties being experienced in Conservative as well as other local authorities would now force the Government to reconsider their approach towards the funding of public services given the impact from their ongoing programme of austerity.

Within Brent the Council would continue its balanced approach towards the management of its finances but Councillor Butt pointed out this would be with £177m less to invest in essential services than in 2010 and with serious funding challenges also being faced by other partners in Brent, with the following examples highlighted:

·                Schools having lost £600 funding per pupil which equated to an entire academic years funding;

·                Police having to manage with 80 less front line officers;

·                NHS services in Brent being some of the most unfunded in London due to the current level of deficit

Looking forward, Councillor Butt highlighted that the position was not expected to get any easier with the Council facing an additional £50m worth of Government imposed austerity budget reductions over the next four years.  Whilst not a barrier to the Council’s ongoing efforts to deliver services he felt it was important to recognise the impact given the serious nature of ongoing challenges faced by the Council and other public service partners in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8