Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Growth and Core Services introduced the Council’s revenue budget monitoring report for the 2022/23 financial year as at 30 September 2022 (period 6).

The Council’s General Fund revenue budget for 2022/23 was £183.06m and the forecast outturn position at the end of September projected a net overspend of £13.637m once movements to and from reserves and income had been taken into account.  The Cabinet Member commented that whilst that represented an improvement of almost £4m compared to the previous month, mainly due to the Investment Reserve being used to cover lost income from dividends and a management action plan to reduce overspending in the Community Solutions service, it was imperative that Cabinet colleagues and Directors continued to identify savings and efficiencies within their respective areas to avoid a significant call on the Budget Support Reserve at the year end.

The Cabinet Member referred to the difficulties being experienced across local government, including Conservative-led Councils, stemming from the Government’s underfunding of the public sector, which was exacerbated in areas of high deprivation such as Barking and Dagenham.  In that regard, it was noted that a recent study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) identified Barking and Dagenham as having the highest rate of deprivation in the country, with 62.4% of residents falling into at least one of the four deprivation indicator categories.  Cabinet Members also poured scorn on the Government’s lack of understanding of what was happening in society and its failure to implement Levelling Up and Fair Funding, as well as its tactic of shifting the blame for increased taxes on local residents by forcing the vast majority of Council’s across the country to have to increase the rate of the local Council Tax by the maximum level allowed in order to continue to provide essential services.

The Cabinet Member was pleased to report that in line with agreed policy, the Council had increased the minimum hourly rate of pay for employees and apprentices in line with the increase to the London Living Wage which took effect from 22 September 2022.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the projected revenue outturn forecast for the 2022/23 financial year as set out in section 2 and Appendix A of the report; and

(ii)  Note that the Council had applied the increase to the London Living Wage from £11.05 to £11.95 per hour for employees and apprentices operating in service areas covered by Green Book terms and conditions, with effect from 22 September 2022.