Agenda item

Lancashire County Councillor David Borrow will present Lancashire County Council’s Budget Proposals. 

Documents from the County Councils Cabinet Meeting to be held on 21^st January 2016 are attached.

The Panel received a presentation from County Councillor David Borrow, Deputy Leader of Lancashire County Council, on the County Council’s consultation on Budget Proposals. The Panel was advised that the proposals had been considered by the County Council’s Cabinet at its meeting on the 21^st January 2016. 

The Panel was advised that the County Council was facing an unprecedented financial challenge. The Medium Term Financial Strategy, reported in November 2015, forecasted that the County Council would have a financial shortfall of £262m in 2020/21. This was the result of a combination of reduced resources from the government’s extended programme of austerity at the same time as the County Council was facing significant increases in both the cost (for example, as a result of inflation and national living wage) and the level of demand for its services. The revised position following the financial settlement for 2016/17 was now for a financial shortfall of £200.5m in 2020/21. This revised gap was after the impact of the settlement, new financial pressures and the £64.8m of savings proposals agreed by the County Council’s Cabinet in November 2015. 

Members were advised that it had been necessary to look at each line of the budget and consider the safe minimums for statutory services. A conclusion had been drawn by the County Council that it would become difficult for the County Council to provide anything other than the statutory services and that this meant that non-statutory services including bus services, museums, street lighting, economic development and some strands of social care would no longer be funded by the government. 

The Panel was advised that the situation was not unique to Lancashire and that a number of County Councils were facing similar financial pressures. Members were advised that representatives of the County Council had met with the Secretary of State and other MP’s from the region to discuss the financial difficulties facing Lancashire and other local authorities. 

The Panel was advised that the County Council was working hard to ensure that a legal budget could be set for 2016/17 but that this would be increasingly difficult moving into future budget years. 

It was reported that there was a 12 week consultation running on the County Council’s budget proposals. 

Panel Members asked a number of questions relating to bus services, social care services and children’s centres, devolution of highways to the City Council, waste collection, Oak Tree House, Unitary and Combined Authorities and private sector tendering. 

Councillors asked questions regarding children’s services, older people and services for the disabled, libraries, bus services community groups and disposal of valuable property assets. 

Stakeholders asked a number of questions relating to vulnerable people and the impact of budget cuts on the voluntary sector, preventative care services and children’s care services. 

In response to questions regarding cuts to social care, County Councillor Borrow said he would provide the Panel with details of the Lanbusant Report which was a key report on Adult Social Care and care beds. Also, in response to questions regarding the County Council disposing of assets to communities County Councillor Borrow advised that he would look into this in more detail and provide to the Panel details of any criteria and or documents that existed and could be circulated.

Resolved:

(1)    That the report be noted and that County Councillor David Borrow be thanked for his presentation and attendance at the meeting.