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REPORT OF THE LEADER ON THE WORK OF THE EXECUTIVE

(Taken from Minutes of Council Meeting of 26th October 2010 - slightly reformatted to add emphasis and clarity)

Council received the following report from the Leader on the work of the Executive:-

“This is my first Leader’s report since the summer recess.  The new Coalition Government has now been in power for nearly 6 months, and whilst things are slowly becoming clearer in a number of areas, there is still a considerable amount of detail to be filled in. The Comprehensive Spending Review of last week gave us some headlines and an indication of the broad parameters that
we need to work within, with the announcement of an overall cut in local authority funding of 28% over a 4 year period, in effect, around 7% each year.  
I suspect, however, that reality will not be that simple and the likely financial position will not become clear until we receive details of our provisional grant settlement in December. We have to consider that the Chancellor’s headline announcements do not cover how matters such as pension revaluation, the transfer of concessionary fares to County and the loss of investment income are to be factored in. I believe that, overall, we could be looking at a reduction in potential budgetary spend of around 10 – 12% in the next fiscal year.

If that does turn out to be the case, and only as more detailed information becomes available will we know whether that is so, the 2011/2012 budgetary setting process may result in us having to make some difficult choices.

This Autumn has seen a range of events taking place.

I mention all of these different activities to emphasise the extent of the work that the Council does and also as a demonstration of the pivotal role that we play in the community; a fact that we should not lose sight of as we go through our budget process.  

Members and officers are to be congratulated on the Council being awarded its Member Development Charter.  We were visited by an assessment team earlier this month and, on the basis of the evidence supplied and their observations and interviews with Members and officers, they were extremely impressed by the Member Training and Development Programme that we
offer, to the extent that we are likely to become a reference site for other District Councils, which is again a demonstration of the good work that goes on in the Authority, much of which is unsung.

Since my last Leader’s report to the Council in July, the Executive has met on four occasions, two of them in private and confidential sessions to discuss the contract for the Materials Recovery Facility, which is the subject of a Member question on the agenda this evening.

The other two meetings have primarily focussed on performance and budget updates to ensure that we remain on track in terms of delivering the key elements of the Council’s agreed programme.  We have had updates on our revenue budget and capital programme positions and considered a report on shared services work across Essex. We have also considered a request to
dispose of a parcel of land owned by the Council in Rayleigh, which we decided to retain.

Since the last Council, my colleagues on the Executive have considered such matters as

As always, I will be happy to take any questions from Members in respect of the work of the Executive.  I am sure my Executive Colleagues will be happy to contribute where appropriate”.

The Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, Cllr C I Black, observed that the previous Government had expected local authorities to be involved with a host of initiatives and that he hoped the new Government would not pressurise authorities to pursue new initiatives purely for ‘box ticking’ purposes.  

It was confirmed that the likely reduction in potential budgetary spend of around 10-12% in the next financial year would be after inflation.