Budget Report 2004-2005
Presented by
Councillor David Gillett
Leader of the Council
Full Council 25th February
2004
"You can't build a reputation on
what you are going to do"
Henry Ford 1863-1947
Budget Speech
2004/5
Leader of the Council Cllr
David Gillett
Presented to Full Council
25th February 2004
In preparing this speech I
struggled, struggled not for something to say but with the concept
of this budget speech in the context of the modernising agenda.
Where does this fit within the overall scheme of things, has this
become something of an anachronism?
I bring this up at the start as
the issues I wish to address go beyond the arena of a pure budget
speech. Two years ago I kept this speech purely to financial issues
and I know members appreciated that, it took a lot less time. But I
think we are missing an opportunity and a point. The point is that
this is perhaps the key speech in this chamber during the civic
year - key in terms of the operations of the council rather than
any civic or ceremonial ones.
The budget is of course central
to what we do and is of crucial interest to the public but there
are so many other significant issues that affect us and how and
what we deliver to the public. There are also many other new
initiatives and schemes that directly involve the future of the
Borough that need referring to and as issues need proper mention. I
believe the future format of this occasion needs close examination,
perhaps it could be tied up with a state of the borough debate,
something which we still have not properly ironed out yet. Perhaps
this should be billed as the Annual Address or Annual Report.
This is an important occasion,
yet none of our key partners are here and I notice we have quite a
few spare seats in the public gallery. In the coming months I hope
that members will engage with this problem, perhaps through the
members issues group.
The last twelve months has seen a
lot of change within the Council, we have said goodbye to
colleagues who have been here many years and given good loyal
service, we have also said welcome to several new members of staff,
three in senior management. I would like to concentrate on them
just for a moment. As you will know, on 2nd February, we
were visited by Tony McNulty MP Secretary of State for Transport,
who came for a whistle-stop tour, presentation and discussion on
the day the Government announced the pilot authorities for the
Livability Fund. The brief presentations were given by Dawn
Baxendale, Joy Okwuadigbo and Colin Rowland. Bearing in mind the
three had been with us for less than a month, their presentations
were faultless, the knowledge they had absorbed regarding the
Borough and then relayed to the audience was seamless and the
enthusiasm they displayed for the Borough and their roles was
plainly obvious.
I was very proud of our new
colleagues, not just proud for them but for all of us, members and
officers alike because I believe that their enthusiasm is shared by
us all. There is a growing confidence about this organisation and a
growing optimism that we are doing it right and doing it better.
The excellent CPA result of Good and Improving did not come about
by chance, it was no fluke. Neither was it just the result of major
management and departmental reshuffling during the last year. The
massive strides we have made in the last twelve months could only
have been achieved by building on rock not sand. That rock is made
up of much good practice that has been under way for the last 3 or
4 years and many members of staff must take the credit for
that.
The few areas that were
highlighted by the CPA for improvement are already being attended
to, none were a surprise. Although some members were unsure of the
value of the informal peer review we undertook last year with our
neighbouring authorities the issues then raised and addressed
proved most valuable within the overall process and we continue to
develop meaningful links with East Hampshire, Chichester and Arun.
They too recognised the benefit of the joint approach and the four
of us managed to get good CPA results with three Goods and an
Excellent.
The subject of partnerships has
been growing at quite a pace this last year. The core one being the
Local Strategic Partnership, which I currently chair. The progress
of LSPs across the county has varied but our own LSP is starting to
mature as more partners are being encouraged to take an active
part. I would especially like to thank Enid Ashley for her dogged
determination at whipping them all into line.
The open day at the Hayling Yacht
club the other week was under the auspices of the LSP and the work
undertaken in the way of seeking partners views on what they felt
Havant needed as a vision was the kind of thing LSPs were
introduced to achieve. That work feeds into and forms the basis of
the newly emerging Community Strategy, which is the lynchpin of all
we strive to achieve.
The Corporate Strategy will be
reforged once the new Community Strategy is in place. With the
Visioning exercise held last summer one could be excused for being
confused, there are so many forward thinking initiatives currently
that we regularly need to take a stock check to ensure they all
point in the same direction and compliment each other rather than
duplicate each other. As this area of work is so crucial I will
briefly explain how the various pieces of the jigsaw fit.
Currently there are four key
components contributing to the future planning of the Borough. The
Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), Creating Quality Places (CQP) in
Leigh Park, The Area Investment Framework (AIF) and the Livability
Fund. Together, these components help to identify what kind of
Borough we want in the future, develop strategies to achieve it and
help to lever funding to deliver it. Three of the four are about
delivering specific changes within the Borough whilst the AIF is
about changes within the Borough that have a sub regional
context.
The other key piece within this
jigsaw is the Local Plan, which as you know is currently awaiting
deliberation from the Inspector. The problem is that our plan,
which has not even yet been adopted, runs to 2011 and work is
already in the pipeline to replace it. This is where the thorny
issue of regionalisation comes into the picture. The County
Structure Plan, which we all used to hate, is being replaced by a
Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) which will be the responsibility of
the Regional Assembly (SEERA). I have mentioned to members several
times the widespread concerns over this unwieldy creature that will
evolve from the Assembly but I can assure members that we are very
much involved in the grass roots work of the RSS.
A sub regional working group has
been established under the acronym of PUSH (Partnership of Urban
South Hampshire) which consists of all the local authorities along
the South of the M27 corridor, including Hampshire CC. Each
authority is represented by the leader and CE or MD in our case.
The group is sub divided into the three main areas of concern,
housing (which I chair), economic development and transport &
planning issues. These sub groups feed into the main PUSH board
which then feeds into the RSS at the Assembly level. It is early
days yet but I can assure members that we have set ourselves a
robust agenda and are currently considering our options to ensure
that our position is well represented. This area of work is
increasingly taking up more of my own time as I focus on the bigger
strategic issues and ensure that Havant is properly represented at
these external bodies.
Due to the economic fragility of
our sub region we are jointly considering opting for a Growth Area
Status. This would mean that we would be eligible for considerable
Government financial support, especially in terms of transport
infrastructure and added assistance with economic development and
regeneration. There are huge amounts of cash up for grabs and if we
dont pitch for it it will go elsewhere. We need to pool our
resources and potential with our neighbouring authorities. Even
Portsmouth and Southampton no longer qualify for special grant
support as they are deemed to be too small so this really is a time
to be developing these crucial relationships.
I make no apologies for going
into such detail regarding these issues, the next few years will be
critical in positioning Havant for the next ten to twenty years,
especially in terms of the economy and infrastructure. We need
jobs, good jobs, we need to improve the skills base and we need to
create the environment for an entrepreneurial culture. We cannot do
this alone but today we are building the partnerships and trust
that will help us to deliver the improved Borough that we all wish
to see.
With regard to improving the
Borough, I know members share my delight that we have won funding
from the Livability Fund in the region of £3m (unconfirmed) for
capital projects and something in the region of £400,000
(unconfirmed) for revenue. This money will be targeted at specific
environmental improvements and projects to be delivered over a two
year period.
A key component of our improving
Borough is how the Council itself responds to the challenges facing
us. We have an ever increasingly articulate and demanding
population who require and deserve a local authority who can meet
and possibly exceed their demands for more efficient and accessible
services. Four years ago I explained how we needed a professional
Customer Service Centre and a change in culture whereby the
customer came first, this necessitated changes in how we worked and
why we worked. I am delighted with the progress we are making in
this area and it is a testament to this work that we will be better
placed to deliver the e-gov requirements than had we not ventured
down this Customer Service road.
Karen Edwards and Steve Mountain
deserve our appreciation for the work they have done to bring the
call centre and our website to a reality. We have a way to go yet
and there have been technical teething troubles but with a project
of this nature that can only be expected, I urge members to hold to
the vision and bear with the system. This is a good moment to
remember that last year we won the Hantsweb award for our own
Havant Borough Web Site. I would also like to thank at this stage
Councillors Briggs and Hart who have been driving through the work
of the IT working group. The biggest internal challenge we face is
the updating of the IT hardware and networks within this building.
The issue is epitomised in a sorry saga which I will share. There
were two brand new laptops sitting in our IT department which
no-one could use because they had Windows XP on them waiting to be
downgraded to Windows 98. You just can't buy new kit with Windows
98 on anymore - the world has been passing us by!!!
Although we are delighted that
the Government are giving us £500k over two years for IT we still
have some very urgent and important decisions to make and if we are
to meet the e-gov deadlines we have to take swift action now to
replace our ageing kit.
The coming months will see our
new depot come online and I hope most members have had an
opportunity to see the new site. Not only is the new depot
impressive but also the other industrial/commercial development
that surrounds it, it is appropriate that the Council is physically
at the heart of this new development which will help to secure the
future of the Borough. Once the old depot and recycling sites are
redeveloped Broadmarsh will be a major contributor to the sub
regional economy. Plans for Dunsbury Hill are still being developed
and once this important project is completed the Borough should be
well positioned to hold its own against ever growing
competition.
The previous paragraphs cover the
issue of More Prosperous, under Cleaner we still
have many challenges to address on the ground with our core
services. Thanks to the efforts of our staff on the street this
Borough is becoming cleaner, more people are
complimenting us and our cleaners are becoming more visible, thanks
to Ralph's purple bags we can at least see the fruits of their
efforts waiting for collection. There will still be the challenge
of increasing numbers of abandoned cars as European directives on
recycling used vehicles starts to bite but we have allowed for
those increases in the budget. Grass cutting has generally been
brought under control with the odd blip thanks to the interjection
of the weather but again the public are noticing the difference.
There has also been a noticeable increase in the level of winter
maintenance as teams have been moving across the Borough cutting
back overgrowing vegetation. We still need to address the problems
of fly tipping and general rubbish on private property, especially
to the rear of shopping areas, often these areas let us down and
undo the good work of our cleansing teams. Well done to all our
depot teams, things really are improving across the board.
Recycling volumes continue to be
a challenge, the extra wheely bins we are introducing will help but
we are constantly faced with the issue of switching to fortnightly
collections as many other local authorities have done. Personally,
I am unconvinced by this proposed change but I assure the public
that if we are to seriously consider such a move it will only be
following extensive consultation with residents.
Havant Borough Council are
certainly doing their bit to make this Borough Safer. Our
major contribution to this is obviously our CCTV network. We
currently have 76 cameras in operation with more to be operational
between 2005 to 2007. We now have the feasibility studies which
looked into areas requiring further coverage including: Wecock,
Cowplain, Barncroft Way, Park House Farm Way, Wellington Retail
Park (106 money) and five sites on Hayling Island. Timings will be
reliant on the capital works programme 2005 to 2007. These extra
cameras will then bring us up to capacity in the control room and
we will have to seriously consider the issue of relocation,
certainly if there are future pressures to increase the size of the
network. Our current revenue spend on CCTV is a staggering £290,000
per annum, it is a constant regret that the Constabulary still make
no contribution to this overhead, whereas most other police forces
do make such a contribution.
During the last year we have
taken positive steps to deal with crime and disorder hotspots,
namely Botley Drive, Mill Road and Crookhorn Precinct. New cameras
in those areas have certainly made a difference along with
additional works to improve the environment. There are though other
community safety issues at various locations around the Borough.
The ability of the Police to respond to residents concerns and
sometimes actual calls for assistance is worrying, new shift
patterns will hopefully put more officers on the beat starting in
April. The Havant division is currently up to full strength but
even that number, as we know, is inadequate. It really is an issue
of how the Divisional Commander allocates these resources. We now
have a new Divisional Commander, Mark Chatterton, he is the third
we have had in the last 12 months but having had several meetings
with him I am confident that he will bring more stability and
improved service to the division than there has been for some
time.
The Community Safety Partnership
really can only work if all partners do their bit. I am pleased to
say that there is growing evidence that our housing partners are
becoming more pro-active. Their input was crucial in bringing the
ASBOs, evictions and other charges to bear with the troubles at
Botley Drive. However, once again nothing would have happened
without the support of Neighbourhood Watch on the ground. We are
grateful for the major contribution that Neighbourhood Watch make
to the partnership and we will continue to support them as best we
can.
Given the nature of some of our
community safety issues we will need to consider the possible
benefit of the Accredited Community Support Officer Scheme. These
would be officers accredited by Hampshire Constabulary and trained
by them, not the full police training but in areas most appropriate
to community safety issues. Only today Hampshire County Council
announced in their budget that they will be employing 40 such
officers, their deployment is not yet known but it will be an
opportunity to observe how they operate and allow more informed
consideration for us in Havant. The major issue for us would be one
of cost, which leads nicely onto the subject of finance.
Year on year it is getting harder
to balance the books, the central demands on us grow and the
central funding to deliver all we have to diminishes with the
passing of time. This last twelve months has seen a growing
disquiet among ordinary council tax payers as the large tax
increases local government in the South has had to pass on becomes
unbearable. The Isitfair campaign asks the right question, the
answer is NO it is not fair. It is not fair that an elderly couple
on a minimal pension pay the same as the family next door which
might have four high wage earners. It is not fair that people on
low wages or basic pensions have to find the money to pay inflation
busting council tax bills when their own incomes are barely keeping
abreast of inflation.
Picking on councillors is not the
answer; the answer lies in a wholeheartedly dishonest government
that is using council tax as another stealth tax. We have a
pensions crisis in this country and I wonder how much of it has
been precipitated by the government fleecing the country's pension
funds to the tune of £25 billion since 1997, they then force
councils into above inflation increases which hits pensioners a
second time, it is a dishonest and a disgraceful way to raise
finance for the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The whole system of how local
government is financed need overhauling. There is no point in just
being opportunistic and populist by saying vote for us well scrap
council tax, the introduction of a local income tax in itself
provides no solution. The government needs to engage fully with the
Local Government Association and enable all of us to participate in
this important debate. Dare I cynically suggest that their
reluctance to release central control over local government finance
is the sheer fact that they want to control local government.
So what have we been doing to
minimise Havant's share of the council tax burden? Through the
reshaping of the directorates directors were asked to pay
particular attention to their overheads, we wanted to start from a
zero based budget but it proved difficult to achieve. Through the
budget process, management team managed to identify £307,000 worth
of savings, these are not cuts. This amount is roughly in line with
the 2% budget reductions which are in accordance with the Medium
Term Financial Strategy.
The key principles for the
directors to adhere to when considering their budgets were as
follows:
- Proposals to be compatible with the Councils expressed
priorities.
- Reduced expenditure/increased income must be mainly continuing
not one year.
- All sources of efficiencies and revenues to be considered.
- Efficiencies to be sought across Groups where synergies exist
i.e. no silos.
It isnt just about saving money
though, the returns from Community Pulse once again indicated that
the vast majority did not want to see a reduction in services. Our
survey revealed that 48% were prepared to pay an increase of 6% to
see services maintained. Once again it is all down to a fine
balance. When asked what their priorities were 50.6%
(1st) said Cleaning the Streets, 49.1% (2nd)
said Community Safety and fifth on the list with 46.5% said
Economic Development. That is clear testament to the fact that our
own maxim of Cleaner, Safer, More Prosperous is bang in
line with the views of our residents.
The budget set for 2004/2005 is
£14.690m. An actual budget increase of 3.8% over the previous year.
This is shown at
Appendix A.
(link to pdf file 85kb). The eagle eyed among us
will notice that it is in fact a lower figure than the last two
years, this is due to the fact that the Benefits Grant is no longer
paid to us as part of our Rates Support Grant (RSG) and is financed
through another mechanism, but our net budget has increased by the
3.8%.
In addition to the normal
inflationary costs we face there are as usual several other costs
that are beyond our control. For 2004/5 they are as follows:
- Increased insurance costs 2%
- Increased pension costs 1%
- Costs of harmonising terms and conditions (single status)
1%
- Govt targets for waste/recycling and e-govt 3%
These pressures alone account for
7% of Borough Council Tax increase. During the next year we will
also be taking on responsibility for Liquor Licensing but the
financial implications of that are unclear.
In accordance with our financial
strategy we have reallocated some of the savings made by the
directorates, this totals £133,800. These enhancements
include:
- An Area Projects Officer, this role will help to identify and
undertake projects on the ground - especially in delivering
Creating Quality Places and rolling out Livability Funding.
- Employment Resource and Support Centre, our modest funding has
helped to lever over £500,000 of EU and Government funding for this
valuable work.
- First Base, formally funded by Social Housing Grant. Had we not
approved this support we would have had to pick up considerable
additional B&B costs.
- Trainee Technician, this new post will prove invaluable in the
long run. Ever since we lost the highways agency and lost several
experienced officers to HCC we have struggled to deliver an
acceptable service with the highway roles we still retain.
- Buildings and Maintenance support, the council own many
valuable assets that we cannot afford to let deteriorate. We have
insufficient manpower to maintain and monitor these assets, in
addition this post will be helping to co-ordinate the capital
programme.
- Webmaster, we need a full time webmaster to ensure the
continuing success of the Council's award winning website. This is
also part of achieving our e-gov targets.
- Customer Services, increased resources are needed to expand the
facility and to meet customer response targets.
Consultation on this budget has
included presentations to resident's associations and the business
community along with our resident Community Pulse. In addition
UNISON have been consulted and their main concern is that the
continuing 2% budget reduction strategy will lead to the slow
strangulation of services. I agree that over time this is a
possibility and I will be raising this point with the portfolio
holder and Management Team.
The biggest single issue facing
us is how we finance our Capital Projects Programme. The continuing
pressures on our revenue budget have made it impossible to feed the
capital pot for the last few years. The list of projects is growing
and the opportunity to get many of these under way seems to
diminish with time. Yes, there will be some money available from
Potash Terrace but it will possibly be the last large influx of
capital we will receive for some time. A large chunk of those
proceeds must be reinvested to help secure our financial future -
to quote a recent advert "once it's gone, its gone".
Now Potash is passing hands, the
last real asset we have (apart from Broadmarsh) is the Civic site.
If we did not consider ways to maximise this asset we would be
failing in our public duty. I know that this issue raises anxieties
and emotions in some members, but in the long run we would be
foolhardy to dismiss the opportunities this site could realise. I
am not saying there are any plans or hidden agendas but I must flag
up the issue, especially as we are going to concentrate our efforts
on the regeneration of Havant Town Centre.
We are also looking at different
ways to prioritise the Capital Programme. There was some CPA and
Peer Review comment that there was insufficient ownership of the
programme by the Executive. Getting the political groups to submit
their preferences on a ward by ward basis is one way to identify
greatest need. The fact that some projects have been on the list
for over 10 years is a complete nonsense. A five year programme for
capital expenditure has been put together but close examination of
it shows diminishing resources, especially beyond year two. For the
immediate future we may have to look at redesignating the Asset
Acquisition Fund and explore alternative approaches through the
revenue account.
The Council Tax recommendations
coming from the Executive are that we approve a budget of
£14,700,000 which will give a CT increase of 5.8% which is the
equivalent of £151.88 for a Band D property which for Havant's
share equates to an increase of just 16p per week. The County's
increase this year is 4.7%, the Police is 11.4% and the new Fire
Authority 21.7% this all amounts to a total for Band D properties
in the Borough of £1,151.69. An increase of £66.29 on last year,
which equates to £1.27 per week. The latest figures we have for all
Hampshire authorities are shown at
Appendix C (PDF File
85KB).
Appendix A (PDF file) gives the
breakdown of the Council Tax calculation.
Appendix B (PDF file) shows the
last 12 years (including 2004/5) comparisons between overall budget
and government grant support with relevant council tax
increases.
Appendix (D (PDF file) shows
the position of our reserves.
In conclusion, against a
difficult backdrop of external pressures and necessary internal
changes I believe we have successfully undertaken a difficult tight
rope walk. We are all acutely aware of the pressures to deliver a
tax increase no greater than inflation but had we dropped the
increase by 3% we would have had to find additional savings of
nearly £200,000, bear in mind the external pressures amount to 7%
alone. We cannot afford to tie our hands too much; we are now
better positioned than we have been for many years to make a real
difference to the lives of the 120,000 people living here.
We will continue to improve the
environment, we will continue to enable commercial expansion, we
will continue to develop community safety initiatives, we will
continue to support our residents.
We WILL continue making Havant
Borough a better place to live, work and play.
Members, I commend this budget to
you.
David
Gillett
Leader of the Council
25th February 2004