PUBLIC CONSULTATION Consultation on the budget proposals for 2013/14

Issues to coverContext of public spending

MCC budget strategy

Specifics issues – pressures/savings

Capital

Welsh Local Government Finance – Unprecedented Times

A long way to go……

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3000%

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5000%

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7000%

8000%

9000%

10000%

7500%

2700%

6600%

8800%9400%

Source - Institute of Fiscal Studies

Best case and worse case scenarios

Scenario 1: Welfare cuts delivered Welsh NHS cut and not protected Public spending grows in line with forecast

economic growth after 2016-17

Our Budgets would still be 1.6% lower in real terms in 2020−21

© Institute of fiscal Studies

Best case and worse case scenariosScenario 2: Welfare not cut and indeed knock on effects for other services Welsh NHS protected and service unreformed Public spending the same in real terms in 2020-21 as in 2016-

17

If this happens, and both welfare spending and the Welsh NHS are protected from further reductions in spending, UAs spending power would be 18% lower (22% lower per person) in 2020−21 than in 2012−13.

1% reduction in WG funding for Monmouthshire equates to approx. £1 million

© Institute of fiscal Studies

The Challenge for non-protected services

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)This may reflect prioritisation of services due to rising demands, statutory obligations or Welsh Government targets

The Challenge for non-protected services

If overall spending on services was to be reduced by 18%, limiting the reductions in overall spending to half that level (9%) in areas that have so far been relatively protected – social services, environmental services and refuse, and education – would require cuts of 52% in spending on all other services. (This equates to about £32 million)

AEF per head of population

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1,800

£ p

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Authority

Comparative funding levels MCC is still at the bottom of the table in

terms of funding per head at £1,139

If MCC was funded at Average AEF per head – extra £25.2

million Top AEF per head – extra £48.6 million Nearest AEF per head – extra £10.7

million

The challenge of demographic change

Areas of Wales that are already relatively old are set to see further rapid aging

The number aged 65 and over per 1,000 working age residents is expected to increase from 370 to 655 in Monmouthshire by 2033.

National and local government will need to plan for such varied changes in demographics (there is considerable uncertainty around these estimates).

Budget Strategy Prioritising direct spending in core strategic

priorities: Schools Services to vulnerable children and adults Activities that support the creation of jobs and

wealth in the local economy Continue to look at the four-year plan – but a

need to look beyond 2013/14 transition year MTFP – need to think differently in responding to

the future financial and demographic challenges

Facing the challenge Agile working Systems thinking Creative Councils Intrapreneurship Review of earmarked reserves

Medium Term Financial PlanNo increase in council tax (1% =

£436k)1% pay award (1% = £721k)Vacancy factor of 2% (1% =

£552k) Inflation factor of 2% (1% = £673k)WG funding levels 0.39% (1%

=£952k)Council tax collection rate of 98%

(1% =445k)

Medium Term Financial Plan

What’s new? Budget shortfalls were managed in 2011/12 and 2012/13 of £5.5m and £4.0m respectively

However, there is no longer any low-hanging fruit. The budget process for 2013/14 has evidenced the challenge ahead

Based on a balanced budget for 2013/14, the revenue budget would need to reduce by a further £12.3m by 2016/17

However, consider the IFS projections up to 2020/21 and that evidence based pressures are not taken into account

Year Shortfall

2013/14 £4.2m

2014/15 £6.4m

2015/16 £11.1m

2016/17 £16.5m

The Projected Gap

Final Settlement Average increase is 1.2% (MCC 0.7%) Adjusting for transfers in – MCC 0.39%

so lost £372k New responsibility – Council tax benefit,

10% Limited information on specific grants

Gap increases to £859k

Specific Issues Pressures identified Savings proposals Budget shortfalls have been managed

through redesign, transformation, income generation, efficiency and system thinking processes.

PressuresSocial Care & Health Pressures 2013/14

£000Residential/Nursing Fees - increase in care home fees 234Community care - recurrent core pressure - reduced by 12/13 virement from Corporate

124

Childrens services 500SCH Totals 858

Regeneration & Culture Pressures 2013/14

£000Use of revenue to increase capital spending and financed from reserves 250Project Gwyrdd - procurement costs / other costs - reserve funded 52R&C Totals 302Of which, reserve funding (enter as credit) (302)R&C Core Funding 0

Corporate Costs & Levies 2013/14

£000Accommodation running costs - various sites 100Increment pay and JE appeal pressure beyond existing budget provision 543Auto enrolment 500Corporate Costs & Levies Totals 1,143

Budget savings - CYPProject title Summary Detail Feasible in

2013/14Improving the quality and efficiency of school meals

Potential savings in provision of meals, capital costs of equipment and on-going maintenance.

£30,000

Procure locally and ensure school meals part of wider Monmouthshire Food experience.

Additional income possible through improved service and take up and 5p increase in price

£25,000

Young people monitoring and managing the CRC scheme in schools

Provide more efficient and ‘hands on’ service and form part of energy saving curriculum

£10,000

Savings still to be found £200,000

TOTAL CYP £265,000

Budget savings - SCHProject title Summary Detail Feasible in 2013/14

High cost placement reviews Review High Cost Placements and re-size using appropriate to need.

£55,000

Ordinary residence Ensure people in supported tenancies in other areas of the Country are care managed and financially managed in their respective areas

£150,000

Community Care Effi ciency Savings

Increased use of Shared Lives, Direct Payments & CDS. Plus reduction in flashing doorbells

£86,000

Drybridge Gardens Service Reconfiguration £20,000

Monmouth Health & Social Care: Offi ce

Review of Administration post £14,000

IT Budget Release of reinstated IT budget following previous IT service review

£30,000

Facilities Budget Release of non pay budget £30,000

Disability Services: Cover Budgets Review of cover budgets £10,000

TOTAL SCH £395,000

Budget savings – R & C

Project title Summary Detail Feasible in 2013/14

Investing in fitness equipment in Leisure centres.

Projections show that investment in quality and supply of equipment will increase custom and generate more income

£100,000

Removing the caretaker model at Leisure Centres

Using on site duty officers to open and close centres £140,000

Sport Wales Calls for Action - Grant Funded new bike centre at Gilwern Outdoor Pursuit centre.

Grants of up to £150k available for more innovative approach to sport development and recreation

£30,000

Collaborative procurement

Museums, libraries, tourism and countryside joint purchasing power

£20,000

Budget Savings – R & CProject title Summary Detail Feasible in

2013/14

In-house delivery of services – rather than using consultants, new income generation

Invest to save model e.g. air quality assessments: £50,000

a. Delivery of public health monitoring arrangements for council-owned property (e.g. legionella) instead of using external consultants could deliver cost savings to other dept’s and income to EH dept.b. Further marketing and development of “Primary Authority” approach engaging businessesc. Collaborative approaches with other authorities delivering income generation by undertaking lead roles such as for delivery of private water supplies audits.

Review of all arts/ cultural/ community grants

·         Business case culture for application process £50,000

·         Decisions in line with furthering 3 priorities·         More targeted intervention·         Moving from grant culture to micro-financing - loans

Abergavenny Museum site Abvy museum retail £8,000 total – Café tables & chairs/vending machine generating £4,000. Pending feasibility study & checking on Marquis’s cut on income, from extending events & activities e.g. Pop up restaurants in castle grounds = £4,000.

£8,000

Budget savings – R & CProject title Summary Detail Feasible in

2013/14

Museum service - Fit for the future (staff review)

£20,000

Conservation Service - income generation.

Funding is currently available as a result of a recently vacated conservator post. Proposal is to ‘ grow’ the 2 p/t conservators posts to generate income from 2013/14.

£7,500

Museum fundraising It’s anticipated that the £50,000 for 2013/14 income generation will depend on applications for external funding of £37,500 to pay for a post to capitalize on new income streams.

£50,000

Voluntary Food Premises Licensing Scheme - chargeable

Not done anywhere - would be a UK first. Invite food business to voluntarily license as a food business enabling them to access consultancy support. This would assist businesses to meet food safety responsibilities and gain a good food hygiene rating under WG’s proposed mandatory display scheme thus supporting public health objectives and economic development.

£10,000

– estimated income £10K in 13-14 building up towards £20K by 15-16.

Monmouthpedia – commercialising IP

·         Scaling up the project to other towns, cities and places in the world

£10,000

TOTAL PUBLIC HEALTH AND CULTURE

£495,500

Budget Saving – R & CProject title Summary Detail Feasible in

2013/14

Increased commercial focus at Caldicot Castle and Old Station

·         Widening volunteer network scope £10,000

·         Commercial management company as per new report

·         New relationships with external funders·         Examination of longer-term ownership options

Re-training and redeploying Adventa team members

·         everyone trained to offer basic business support and development services commercially

£40,000

Provision of commercial consultancy ‘start to finish’ planning service

·         end to end service provision £5,000

Budget Saving – R & C

Project title Summary Detail Feasible in 2013/14

Provision of training and HR services via Mon Enterprise

Provision of training courses on how to manage people, covering the full spectrum of human resource management, including how to handle disciplinaries, how to handle grievances, how to manage redundancies, how to dismiss, how to manage sickness absence, how to have difficult conversations, how to manage performance, how to identify training needs at the 3 levels and how to meet those training needs plus many more delivered on a commercial fee basis

£25,000

Provision of a redundancy and dismissal management service offered on a commercial fee basis

Provision of the full spectrum of human resource management services offered on a commercial fee basis (includes managing disciplinary and grievance processes)

Increasing the capacity of the Housing Support Gateway

To merge the existing three services and provide an improved value for money service. Need to reduce the risk associated with the private rented sector NOT providing a viable housing option. This change will help to strengthen the private sector and increase the level of homeless prevention.

£10,000

Budget Saving – R & CProject title Summary Detail Feasible in

2013/14

Integrating the homelessness out of hours service with Torfaen and building on the shared functionality that is starting to be created

£7,500

Developing a lodging and shared services housing scheme to provide a new more cost efficient option for Housing and Children’s’ Services

Potentially a big income opportunity as DWP is proposing to introduce management charge of £40 per person per week. At £7.00 income per week per place, for 50 units over a complete year this could generate £18,200 pa. This is very crude and assumes maximum usage and is not based on any modelling.

£9,000

TOTAL PLANNING, PLACE AND ENTERPRISE

£106,500

Budget Savings – R & CProject title Summary Detail Feasible in

2013/14Implementation of Highways, Waste and Street-scene systems review

·         integration of three service areas into one £120,000

Income generation amongst various traded services, grounds, trunk roads etc.

review all service costs to draw out potential improved income and additional turnover

£143,000

PTU – reducing costs, increasing income.

Review major costs and develop private hire income. Changes to special needs provision can create this and more with CYP involvement. Increased private hire allowed for.

£75,000

Refresh of staffing structures and project management

·         reviewing progress with restructure £130,000

Fleet acquisition and utilisation & radical efficiency

£400k in 12-13 revised in 13-14 to £100k (reprofiled leasing replacements program)

£150,000

Working closely with town and community councils around co-production opportunities.

New jobs to deliver key services & enact statutory functions but with funding split between TC and MCC -

£10,000

Budget Savings – R & C

Project title Summary Detail Feasible in 2013/14

Charging for green waste collection extending scope of charging regime for green waste services

Probably achievable - not a full year of implementation and also need to think of administration costs. £420k is a 'best guess' but despite concern over the eventual take up and hence accuracy of this budget estimate the value will be maximised as long as decision is made early.

£420,000

Investing in new H&S Monitoring Officer to ensure compliance in all Public Buildings.

The authority currently has an obligation to fund legionella monitoring at an approx. annual cost of 45k to 50k; asbestos and fire monitoring at 25k. This works is currently carried out by external contractors but would be more efficient if carried out by a dedicated internal resource as is the case with all our Education properties.

£30,000

Investment in appropriate Contract Management and Contract Management Training

Improved contract management in areas of significant spend could save revenue budgets. Requires audit of exiting contract management awareness and competence together with investment in programme of training.

£30,000

Training of Property Services staff to undertake COW (Clerk of Works) duties

Removes need for additional COW role and saves salary costs

£10,000

Budget Saving – R & C

Project title Summary Detail Feasible in 2013/14

Low Interest Loans to MCC Residents, Businesses & Staff to install renewable technologies

An ideal situation for Monmouthshire to only consume the energy it produces – this is a long way off but we could kick start this by making renewable technology more affordable to those that really need reduced energy bills. We could work with CIC’s to cost the schemes and install and the lender would enter into a commercial loan with MCC at 2% above our borrowing rate (norm 3-4%). This would be a cheaper loan for borrowers and still make MCC an income

£10,000

Centralising energy budgets in the Sustainability team

This would allow the Energy team to utilise savings that it makes to implement additional energy saving schemes e.g. voltage optimisers and install additional renewable technologies, thereby reducing our carbon output. It would also reduce the amount of administration and time lost pushing bills around the County.

£10,000

Sexton Service Withdraw the sexton service at Chepstow and LLanfoist and provide a mobile service. May be some benefit from collaboration with Torfaen which has a team doing cemetery services.

£30,000

Out of Hours Services Review our out of hours services – duty officers and overtime arrangements

£25,000

Budget savings – R & CProject title Summary Detail Feasible in

2013/14

Greater flexibility to alter service delivery and reprioritise area based FM services

Area based Facilities Management (FM) being rolled out across public buildings,offices and schools. Offers service provider opportunity to work with the clients to prioritise service and costs and allow the contractor the flexibility to deliver

£25,000

Installation of fuel saving technology to HGV's

Fuel management system to cut fuel consumption - particulalry suitable for high consumption HGV's - given installation costs

£35,000

Charging for pest control service

Not uncommon amongst neighbouring authorities for this service to be provided at a charge. Not a statutory service so a further option would be to withdraw provision of the service and only provide information.

£45,000

Car park charging Increase in car park charges and fines by an average of 10% (rounded to practical amounts). Charges have not been adjusted since 2007.

£100,000

TOTAL INFRASTRUCTURE & SUSTAINABILITY

£1,398,000

Budget Savings - CEOProject title Summary Detail Feasible in 2013/14?

Investigate the integration of libraries and One Stop Shops – Abergavenny, Chepstow, Caldicot and Monmouth

There is an option of combining customer services into a customer hub by merging one stop shops with libraries. This would free up the current premises in prime retail positions

£35,000

Revising current charging regime for OSSs

Potential charging for dog foul sacks & RADAR Keys.

£10,000

Digital meetings Purchase of tablet computers for councillors and end of printing agenda and reports for meetings

£10,000

Review of structures in CEO Details to be confirmed £100,000

TOTAL CEOs £155,000

Budget Savings - CorporateProject title Summary Detail Feasible in 2013/14

Make better use of corporate contracts.

A lot of work seems to go into setting up these contracts and the opportunity to use WPC contracts but there are very few checks on budget managers to ensure that they are using these contracts. There needs to be some form of justification for not using these contracts with open communication to the procurement team.

£50,000

SEN Transport SEN transport costs vary according to individual needs and can significant budget impact. Full review of SEN provision taking a holistic view, ensuring that transport implications are part of the decision making process

£100,000

Maximising use of VC/conferencing to avoid travel

Reduce travel allowance budget of £750,000 by 10%

£75,000

Treasury savings Through maximising internal borrowing position, taking prudent view on capital slippage and on market rates

£256,000

Council tax base Estimated growth in council tax base for 2013/14

£626,192

Fees and charges target Further income generation £50,000TOTAL CORPORATE £1,157,192

CAPITAL - Welsh Government Capital spending

2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Draft Budget

2013-14 Draft Budget

2014-15 Draft Budget

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£1,506m £1,523m£1,577m

£1,628m £1,644m

£1,216m£1,137m

£1,013m £1,013m

Welsh Government Capital Budget(DEL Cash Terms)

£ m

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Capital Strategy Final settlement – little change from

provisional, 19.9% reduction 21st century schools priority Capital receipts Protect DFG, Access for all projects Reductions in Maintenance budgets for

property and highways using service redesign where possible

WG extra funding for highways stops in 2015/16

Capital budgets

Indicative Indicative Indicative IndicativeBudget Budget Budget Budget2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

Strategic Accommodation Review 321,708 0 0 0Property Maintenance ** 2,411,597 2,098,090 1,929,278 1,929,278Asset Management Schemes 2,733,305 2,098,090 1,929,278 1,929,278

Infrastructure maintenance 2,800,925 2,212,731 2,240,740 2,240,740WG funded highways schemes 1,810,000 1,810,000Infrastructure & Transport Schemes 4,610,925 4,022,731 2,240,740 2,240,740

Capital receipts Capital receipt projections

Risks associated with timing and value Supplement with capital investment

reserve monies

Conclusions Tough but going to get tougher 2013/14 transition year – still a gap to be

found Dynamic process, still updating/working on it Consultation process – on what is presented

and what is missing, ideas to include for 2013/14

Ideas for future – not about incremental tinkering, need to think differently