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Budget Report 2007-2008
Leader of the Council Cllr David Gillett
Presented to Full Council 28 February 2007
On looking back at previous budget speeches there are several
common themes, and in writing this year’s speech I am struggling to
avoid those same topics, because there is continuing widespread
frustration that despite regular lobbying and public debate certain
facts of life in local government don’t change.
Reviewing the last 12 months, and the work that has been going
on within HBC, I am however heartened that irrespective of how much
we are disdainfully treated by central government that the
professionalism and dedication of our staff in many ways negates
the appalling way we are treated by our central paymasters and law
makers.
The key challenges for this borough remain as they have a for
some time, such as high unemployment, learning and skills issues,
maintaining quality services to our residents, protecting our
environment at the same time as promoting regeneration, and above
all – doing all this with an ever tightening of our corporate
belt.
The focus of all we do must be our residents and the services
we provide them. A close second is the businesses that operate here
providing the jobs and the wealth so essential for a successful and
harmonious community. The difficulty for us here is the fine
balance in providing those services in an affordable and efficient
manner against a backdrop of ever increasing costs and a public who
are sick to death of ever increasing council tax.
Thanks to much publicity most of our residents seem to
understand the straight jacket we are in regarding finance, this
helps, a little, but it does nothing to relieve the real burden
that council tax has become for many, especially those on low fixed
incomes and pensions. The whole system is immoral, but
unfortunately for us we have a legal obligation to go through this
process.
Noises coming out of Westminster do not give us any hope that
a fairer and more workable replacement for Council Tax will be
forthcoming, indeed, the few new ideas that are evolving fills one
with horror such as taxing home improvements, so perhaps a good
time to sell your shares in B&Q.
When I look around this Council chamber I see many decent folk
who became councillors to work for and support their communities,
to help individuals, to make things better, yet we find ourselves
having to take decisions that we would rather not. This is
especially true around budget time.
When we become councillors we are elected to represent a ward,
a community, but once we are here we are Borough councillors,
making decisions on behalf of the whole. That is sometimes
difficult, because we have a corporate responsibility to the whole
borough yet are often pulled in two directions.
We all represent unique areas, and to misquote George Orwell,
one could say that ‘all areas are unique, but some are more unique
than others’, but wherever you are from your area depends on the
services of this council. In delivering our services we try to be
as fair and as equitable as possible, not favouring any one
community or group but ensuring that we all have equal access to
the many services HBC provides. One good example of this has been
the evenhanded way that over £3m worth of Liveability funding has
been spread around the borough.
The other side of that coin is the fact that all communities
have a responsibility to contribute equally to the corporate pot,
not favouring one area over another. Granted, there are differences
in dynamics among our communities but there must still be a
contributory principle. In all our relationships, be they with
residents, businesses or other agencies there has to be a
partnership of trust and it has to be a two-way thing.
This principle can be extended to all of the various
partnerships that we are engaged in with delivering public
services. With the trust and partnership has to be commitment, that
commitment has to be total otherwise the partnership will be weak
and only supported by lip service. I have in mind issues around the
Local Strategic Partnership and support funding for that and the
Community Boards. Havant Borough Council can feel proud of the
commitment we have made to these things but can some of our
partners honestly say the same. I have little time for talking
shops as they very rarely deliver anything for our communities and
I have come to breaking point over one or two of these on which I
sit.
This is part of the reason why I have set up the Leigh Park
& Warren Park Task Force. It is about bringing together those
agencies that deliver services but to do it in such a way as to
make everything join up in a coherent manner. I am grateful to the
staff behind the scenes that are helping me put together the aims
and the terms of reference for the Task Force and within the next
few weeks I will be approaching our various partners inviting them
to work with us to improve the way services are accessed and
delivered in those areas.
Following the service reviews, I am glad that one outcome has
been the bringing together of regeneration and community services
and along with public services being under the same umbrella we now
have an even better opportunity to lead the way in joined up
service delivery. Recent rises in crime and increased fear in some
areas have highlighted the need to address community safety issues
differently.
In keeping with the theme of shared responsibility -
shared benefits, my intention is to widen the Task Force approach
to the whole borough once the model has been honed and proven in
the two previously mentioned areas.
A few people have voiced concern that we may face an uphill
challenge in bringing changes to the way services are delivered
with some partners not wishing to play ball. I believe this will be
a test of service providers’ determination to seek the optimum
level of service provision to their customers. The only good thing
to come out of Westminster this last 12 months has been the White
Paper “Strong and Prosperous Communities”. This clearly gives HBC a
green light to take the lead in the reform of service provision
locally and I will mention more of the White Paper later on.
Once we have determined the participating partners in the Task
Force and all the ducks are properly lined up we will hold a
seminar for all members to share the vision and mechanics of what
we are about to embark upon.
This time last year I was reflecting concerns that there may
be forced amalgamations of local authorities, in fact some local
authorities have taken up the offer of becoming unitary with most
of them being in the midlands and the north. During the last year
there has been a lot of work behind the scenes within Hampshire to
seek way of increasing back room co-operation and this work is
progressing well. For this to be successful you need commitment,
open mindedness and a desire to operate more cost effectively and
perhaps most importantly – mutual trust. Needless to say that
Havant Borough Council are just about the first out of the trap on
this piece of work.
In considering the issue of how trust operates at all levels
within and around this organisation; there can be no more important
relationship we embark upon than that between our residents and
ourselves. Each of us, both as individual members and as political
groups has a serious responsibility to engender trust with the
residents of this borough, especially as we are not only
representatives of various wards but also of this council.
I have lost count of the number of times the press have
contacted me looking for confirmation or denial of some bizarre
plan or idea to have apparently come out of this administration.
This can only be as the result of mischief making, often for
political gain at the expense of both our residents and good name
of this council.
Several times I have come across promises made to residents by
various individuals or groups, promises which we have no chance of
delivering - even if we wanted to - just to discredit this
authority and to gain some personal or political kudos. This is
dishonesty at its worst and I implore all members to take their
responsibilities very seriously and not to unfairly raise
expectations amongst our communities.
In fact, one could parallel such situations with the
government raising the spectre of greater public participation yet
not provide the financial support or freedoms to deliver such
things……..but I won’t go down that road again, well, not just
yet.
Last summer saw us hold our very successful Developers Day.
This involved hosting around 100 key partners, developers and
investors at which a series of presentations and walking tours of
Havant Town Centre took place. This was followed by a coach tour of
the major development opportunities in the borough. I am pleased to
share with you that there is serious development interest in
redeveloping Market Parade, one of the key sites we highlighted.
This event was yet another HBC innovation and was received
extremely well and has resulted in some major interest in
development opportunities in the area.
Many people seem to struggle with the principle of Economic
Regeneration. New development is a key part of this, along with a
whole host of other initiatives related to learning and skills and
inward investment at several levels but please let us not forget a
few salient points.
Havant Town Centre has been a tired area for too long and due
to many years of apathy has lost its way, primarily through lack of
leadership from this authority and its’ leading members. This means
there has been a huge challenge to reverse this problem. There has
also been a large lack of confidence in this council from investors
because of a lack of leadership and the way it was run.
I am however, delighted to say that during the last five years
these negative situations have been turned on their heads. Thanks
to clear decisive political leadership, and a professional and
responsive senior management team and supporting staff, we now have
a rapidly growing enviable reputation as a businesslike no-nonsense
authority, and a borough which people are prepared to invest in and
assist us in securing a better future, not only for today’s
residents but for generations to follow.
People don’t like change or are wary of it but unless we were
to stop this town dying on its’ feet something had to give. The
Havant Town Centre design framework has been a key driver in
turning the situation around. The main weakness in delivering the
required changes seems to be in the methodology of consultation.
The depth and pace of change has revealed the need for a much more
robust process of prior public and partner engagement and unless we
can resolve this urgently we are in danger of crippling our
regeneration efforts and of equal concern – impacting on the
confidence that is now out there.
I am grateful to my deputy for his efforts in coming to grips
with this issue and I ask both members and officers to support him
as much as possible in developing new processes and ways of working
in order to ensure that the momentum of our regeneration
aspirations is not lost whilst bringing in acceptable methodologies
that are sustainable and inclusive.
I referred earlier to other initiatives involved in
regeneration and one of our key continuing aims must that of
addressing learning and skills issues, not just for our youngsters
but for all age groups as the life long learning agenda gathers
speed. A couple of years ago, HBC led with yet another innovation
that of bringing education chiefs together with senior business
people to start meaningful dialogue and partnerships. I am
delighted that a recent similar meeting has resulted in the
creation of the Havant Skills and Employability Partnership
co-ordination panel.
Key institutions such as Portsmouth University, the Learning
and Skills Council, SEEDA, and high profile local businesses are
involved and this work will go a long way to developing the
aspirations of our younger generations and helping them to
appreciate the skills required in the developing and global
workplace.
The press and public are often exercised by the fact that some
authorities council tax rise is lower than ours, people are quick
to compare and for the press the differences can make nice catchy
headlines. As usual, one needs to look a little more carefully at
why these disparities occur.
The starting point has to be how wealthy the authority is,
what kind of assets it has and how prudent its forbears have been.
Unfortunately for us, our family ancestors have left us a legacy,
but it is one not to be envied. We have a disproportionate low
level of assets, which are needed for valuable income this means
that more of our income is dependent upon both government grant and
the various charges that are levied by the council, be they parking
charges or other fees for our services and facilities.
Another major factor affecting proper comparison is the
disproportionate amount that we have to spend on regeneration when
compared to our neighbours. For example we spend around *£7.44 per
head of population against, Fareham at £2.88, Gosport £4.35 and a
countywide average of £4.60. If we didn’t pursue these regeneration
activities we could save money but we have a strong moral and
business argument for maintaining support for Economic
Development.
Additionally, the dynamics of our population differ, for
example at £343,000 we are spending way more than anyone else in
Hampshire on Disabled Facility Grants with Gosport being the lowest
at only £89,000. Quite a few of these grants are for Portsmouth
tenants but PCC are under no obligation to pay for these
improvements, therefore HBC are improving the value of PCC housing
stock. Whilst in no way wishing to criticise or deprive those in
need of the facilities they deserve and are entitled to this yet
again raises the bizarre anomaly of having 6,000 houses in our
borough owned by another local authority.
We are blessed with having good access to the sea and all the
recreational and tourism opportunities that provides but one
downside to this amenity is the fact that the 30 miles of coastline
we have requires maintenance and as we know DEFRA will not provide
the proper funding to protect and maintain this. Our per head
spending on flood defence and coastal protection is £3.71 as
opposed to Fareham at 85p and Gosport at 31p.
So you see, before jumping to conclusions over council tax, we
must understand the facts behind the headlines.
Briefly returning to the White Paper, I have, on several
occasions, been openly critical of the Government’s drive for
greater community involvement and the raising of expectations
whilst at the same time restricting the finance to assist achieving
the goal. It is with a great sense of ‘I told you so’ that I will
now quote from their new White Paper “Strong and Prosperous
Communities”; it states in one section the following……..
“Significant progress has been made in improving local
services but rising public expectations and the challenging
financial climate requires that councils continue to drive forward
the transformation of local services.”
It almost seems like a ‘road to Damascus’ conversion, but
alas, there is NO new money, and we have to create it ourselves by
making operational savings.
There is, however, one piece in the Paper which I am taking
very much to heart. It states:
“…..we will encourage greater service collaboration
between councils and across all public bodies”.
Section 5 of the White Paper Implementation Plan states the
following:
“To realise the full potential of the opportunities the reform
agenda provides, we need to:
continue to reform public agencies, offering greater choice and
quality of service in response to the demands of citizens;
ensure strong and effective partnership working, supported by
clear and effective leadership from local authorities;
empower citizens and communities, influencing services and
holding public agencies to account;
encourage local partners to address complex and challenging
cross-cutting local issues.”
There is a clear directive here for HBC to take the lead in
reforming local services. The Leigh Park Task Force will be at the
vanguard of this work. It had been suggested over a year ago that a
community based organisation in Leigh Park could be directly
responsible for delivering services, thanks to a recent independent
report, soon to be published, this approach has not been
recommended and is in favour of an ‘Enhanced Status Quo’. This is
perfect timing for us to be a national leader in delivering this
part of the White Paper.
As the title of this speech suggests, by bringing together the
service providers “Shared Responsibilities” we will all reap the
“Shared Benefits”, the biggest beneficiaries being of course our
residents.
The last 12 months has seen the completion of several new and
exciting projects. Many of the Liveability schemes have been
completed and some of the more complex ones are now under way.
There are a few still waiting to start but the delays are down to
the sheer amount of work for the approved contractors, i.e. they
couldn’t do everything at the same time.
It is sickening to see that already vandals have attacked the
lights surrounding the sculpture in Havant Park. These will be
repaired and this time, hopefully, they will be more robust
although the perpetrators must have used something akin to a
pickaxe to have smashed the thick glass. Much though I try I still
cannot appreciate the wavy new railings at the other end of the
park, perhaps if they didn’t look like they had only been primed
they mightn’t look too bad. Our appreciation and congratulations go
to all staff that have been involved in the delivery of this
prestigious borough wide project.
We have also just won another major investment package, this
time from The Big Lottery Fund, it is for £284,000 to enhance play
across the borough. We are only one of 10 local authorities in the
South East to have benefited from the £124million Children’s Play
Programme. Schemes such as the upgrade and refurbishment at
Hayling’s Youth Café, a new woodland trail at Staunton Country Park
and a music drop-in lounge in Wecock, in addition we will continue
to invest in existing adventure playgrounds around the
borough.
I don’t think that it is ‘chance’ that enables Havant Borough
to be on the receiving end of such investment and attention. It was
not long ago that we were the only town in the South East to have
been selected to take part in the pan-European AGORA pilot, funded
by the European Social Fund. Through this project we have been
working with the Association of Town Centre Management and the
retail Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University, as well as
Havant Business Group and others, looking at new and innovative
ways of regenerating the town centre.
I touched briefly on community safety earlier but I believe
that I should reflect one issue of concern over local
policing. With the Police’s move to the wider Occupational Command
Unit (which incorporates Havant, Winchester, Fareham and Gosport
borough council areas), we have seen a move away from the more
community focused activity by the Police in our borough area as
they direct their community policing resources into the wider
OCU.
In recognition of this, we have worked with the Havant Crime
and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) to invest CDRP financial
resources into community safety staffing. The CDRP has
provisionally committed funding for a number of community safety
posts whose work we as a borough council will be directing.
This will enable us to deliver against the community safety agenda,
in partnership with other organisations in our borough (eg Police,
PCT and housing providers).
If successful, these new posts will go a long way to improving
both intelligence gathering and co-ordination of all community
safety resources. Linking this in with the Task Force and the fact
that I now have responsibility for community safety in my portfolio
my earnest hope is that we should start to see a turning back of
the tide of relentless yobbery and thuggery and really start to
make our streets safer and our residents less fearful. At this
point I would like to thank Cllr Gwen Blackett for her work
covering community safety over the last few years.
In my last budget report to council I commented on how well
our Alternate Weekly Collections were coming along. At that stage
only part of the borough was operating the scheme and since last
September all areas of the borough have been involved. The
statistics surrounding the whole subject have been quite remarkable
and reflect the professional and dedicated manner with which our
officers have approached the whole challenge.
Our original recycling target was 30% set by the government
and we are actually on course to achieve 31%. As a result of our
resident’s efforts we have also reduced residue waste by 19%, which
is the best performance in Hampshire. Understandably, there have
been many enquiries coming into customer services about the
changeover and the actual complaints received have been less than
1%. I would like to express the member’s gratitude to our customer
services team who dealt so well with many calls, some of which, I
am sure, were challenging to say the least.
In looking at our finances I will start with one interesting
statistic. In 1993/4 a band D property was paying HBC £148.92, the
amount being proposed in this budget for 2007/8 will be £176.90, an
increase of 19% on 93/4 which is a difference of only 54p per week.
Admittedly 93/4 was higher due to recouping Community Charge
defaulters but with a gap of 14 years in between that is still not
a bad deal.
I will start with our overall financial position. The table
below shows that we have a healthy balance in revenues and capital.
The capital account is high because it contains elements of both
Liveability and the Potash Terrace proceeds and takes a dip from 06
to 07 due to capital monies being spent in accordance with the
capital programme. It is still sad to see that year on year we have
to put more aside to cover insurance as our increasingly litigious
society seeks to gain at every opportunity.
| Reserves And Developers Contributions |
31 March
2006
Actual
|
31 March 2007
Estimate
|
31 March 2008
Estimate
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Revenue Reserves
|
£1,461,000
|
£1,700,000
|
£1,650,000
|
|
Insurance Reserve
|
£136,00
|
£230,00
|
£350,00
|
|
Capital Reserves and Receipts
|
£3,965,000
|
£2,100,000
|
£1,300,000
|
|
Contributions from Developers for
specific purposes
|
£732,000
|
£700,000
|
£700,000
|
| Total Reserves At End Of Year |
£6,294,000 |
£4,730,000 |
£4,000,000 |
The level of council tax I am proposing is higher than I would
wish but the increase is the lowest we have put forward since
98/99. The 4.4% increase will take a Band D property to £176.90.
This equates to an additional 14p per week, taking the tax bill to
a total of £3.40 a week for all that Havant Council provides, which
totals around 200 different services.
The total a Band D property will pay, including County, Police
and Fire & Rescue will be £1,313.96, an increase of 4.9% on
last year. The table on the next page gives the detailed breakdown
of the supporting components for the calculation. As I said last
year, please don’t ask me to explain Revenue Support Grant; if I
could I would be earning a lot more money doing something
else.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Council Tax calculation
|
Total
|
Band D
|
Total
|
Band D
|
% change
|
|
|
2006/2007
|
Council
|
2007/2008
|
Council
|
of Band
|
|
|
|
Tax
|
|
Tax
|
D tax
|
|
|
|
2006/2007
|
|
2007/2008
|
over
|
|
|
£ 000's
|
|
£ 000's
|
|
2006/2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net expenditure
|
16,624
|
£392.75
|
17,117
|
£403.06
|
2.6%
|
|
National Non-Domestic Rate Government Grant
|
-7,933
|
-£187.42
|
-8,236
|
-£193.94
|
3.5%
|
|
Revenue Support Grant
|
-1,531
|
-£36.16
|
-1,382
|
-£32.55
|
-10.0%
|
|
Total Formula Grant
|
-9,464
|
-£223.58
|
-9,618
|
-£226.49
|
1.3%
|
|
Sub-total
|
7,160
|
£169.17
|
7,499
|
£176.57
|
4.4%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Deficit on Council Tax Collection Fund
|
14
|
£0.33
|
11
|
£0.26
|
N/A
|
|
Surplus on Community Charge Collection Fund
|
-5
|
-£0.12
|
3
|
£0.07
|
N/A
|
|
NET EXPENDITURE
|
7,169
|
£169.38
|
7,513
|
£176.90
|
4.4%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
County Council Tax
|
|
£910.62
|
|
£955.62
|
4.9%
|
|
Fire Authority Tax
|
|
£53.64
|
|
£56.07
|
4.5%
|
|
Police Authority Tax
|
|
£119.43
|
|
£125.37
|
5.0%
|
|
Total Band D Tax
|
|
£1,253.07
|
|
£1,313.96
|
4.9%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Taxbase
|
42,327
|
|
42,468
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The table on the next page illustrates how government grant
has changed over the years and how we have had to respond to it.
Had they have kept up with inflation since 1997 we would be better
off by around £1.6million. There does have to be a health warning
with these figures, for example the grant for 2006/7 seems high but
that does include additional support for the introduction of
concessionary travel.
A continuing frustration is the constant government assertions
that they are providing revenue support grant (RSG) that covers
inflation or our increased costs. Our biggest overhead by far is
our wages bill but that is only to be expected given that we are a
service organisation. Local Government employee conditions are
negotiated at the national level and these, to the best of my
recollection, are never below the rate of inflation. This means
that even if we did receive RSG at the rate of inflation we would
still have a shortfall, just to meet the wages bill.
Of course there are many other external pressures on our
costs. Many suppliers have increased costs and charges, which
they transfer on to the Council and these all have an impact on our
overheads. The service review that we have conducted over the last
18months has identified £1.1m worth of savings which has helped
considerably this year but next year will be even more of a
challenge and we may have to start looking at service reductions or
ceasing some altogether but that is a debate for another day.
| |
Budget
£ million
|
% budget
increase |
Govt. grant/
NNDR
£ million |
% grant
increase |
% Council
Tax
increase |
| 1993/94 |
12.370 |
|
8.466 |
|
|
| 1994/95 |
12.586 |
1.7% |
8.925 |
5.4% |
-19.3% |
| 1995/96 |
12.649 |
0.5% |
8.689 |
-2.6% |
0.4% |
| 1996/97 |
12.736 |
0.7% |
8.533 |
-1.8% |
6.3% |
| 1997/98 |
12.806 |
0.5% |
8.255 |
-3.3% |
-3.4% |
| 1998/99 |
12.806 |
0 |
8.214 |
-0.5% |
-2.3% |
| 1999/2000 |
13.064 |
2.0% |
8.288 |
0.2% |
4.5% |
| 2000/2001 |
13.407 |
2.6% |
8.362 |
1.6% |
4.5% |
| 2001/2002 |
14.116 |
5.3% |
8.830 |
5.6% |
5.7% |
| 2002/2003 |
14.751 |
4.5% |
9.081 |
2.8% |
6.9% |
| 2003/2004 |
15.343 |
4.0% |
9.193 |
1.2% |
9.0% |
| 2004/2005 |
14.690 |
-4.3% |
8.249 |
-10.2% |
5.8% |
| 2005/2006 |
15.291 |
4.1% |
8.487 |
2.9% |
6.5% |
| 2006/2007 |
16.624 |
8.7% |
9.464 |
11.5% |
4.7% |
| 2007/2008 |
17.117 |
3.0% |
9.618 |
1.6% |
4.4% |
Colleagues, it is a shame that this is the only opportunity to
really explore the many issues affecting this council and the
borough in this manner. Perhaps we should consider a mid term
debate as there are so many other matters that I have not had space
or time to explore.
I have concentrated on issues surrounding partnerships because
I sincerely believe that only through them can we provide the
ultimate service to our residents.
It is futile to be critical of others if our own house is not
in order. We are not perfect, we have some areas requiring
improvement but on the whole we are becoming an organisation that
is very fit for purpose. All our staff aspire to provide an
efficient and cost effective service, not only for our residents
but in support of you, the members, also.
The biggest challenge is how we and other public service
providers work together for the benefit of our customers, the
residents. The task force is the first real test of not only our
resolve, but of our various partner’s ability to work with us in a
spirit of co-operation and commitment to the public.
In closing I would like to express the member’s thanks to all
the staff who have worked under difficult circumstances with the
ongoing service reviews and the musical chairs that some have had
to go through. There is also genuine regret at the staff we have
had to lose through redundancy, especially as some of those have
been with us for many years. Our thanks go to them for the service
they have rendered to this borough and the council.
The biggest sadness of the last 12 months was undoubtedly the
loss of Jane Rayner, a good friend to many members and officers
alike and she will always be missed.
Members, I commend this budget to you.
David Gillett
Leader of the Council
28 February 2007
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in
it." George W. Bush
* All rates/amounts quoted are as per 2006/2007
estimates from CIPFA publications.