The Budget Scrutiny Task Group met to scrutinise the council's Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) and the budget for each of the council's service areas in light of the Autumn Budget. The meeting considered the key issues, initiatives, pressures, and investment proposals in the context of the council's stated strategic priorities, Fairer Westminster¹.

Medium Term Financial Plan

The MTFP was scheduled to be discussed in the context of the 2024 Autumn Budget Statement².

The report pack notes that the Autumn Budget included an announcement of a 3.2% increase in local government Core Spending Power, including an additional £1.3bn in core spending grant funding.

The report pack also notes that, Settlements for 26/27 onwards are less clear, although indications suggest that future funding increases will be significantly reduced.

The report pack included the following table summarising the council's updated budget position:

The report pack also notes that, The MTFP position does not take into account any decision on the level of council tax rises for future years. For every 1% increase the net yield would be £690k.

Housing and Commercial Partnerships

The report pack details savings and pressures relating to both the Housing Revenue Account ³ and the General Fund budgets for Housing and Commercial Partnerships.

The report pack identifies the ongoing housing crisis as a key issue, and notes that, The ongoing housing crisis particularly affects Westminster. Site viability issues have led to a lack of genuinely affordable housing units being delivered. This lack of affordable housing, an increasing reliance on the private rental market, benefit caps, and a rising cost of living has put a significant proportion of our residents at risk of deprivation or homelessness.

The report pack proposes a series of savings and income maximisation measures totalling £6.26m, pressures totalling £3.47m, and investments totalling £3m for the Housing and Commercial Partnerships directorate.

The single biggest pressure identified in the report pack is a £7.5m increase to the Housing Revenue Account repairs and maintenance budget to cover, the increase in demand and the continuation of the proactive approach we have taken to undertake repairs to our properties in response to tenant feedback.

Communities

The report pack identifies a need for increased investment in community hubs. The report pack states that, Community Hubs are part of the Council’s response to delivering the Fairer Westminster objectives.

The report pack includes proposals for £1.296m in investment in Community Hubs in Charing Cross, Victoria, and Bayswater.

The report pack also notes that the council is currently reprocuring a number of significant contracts. The report pack argues that this will require extra investment in the short term, and states that, Some 48% of the Directorate's spend is tied up in 4 major contracts which are being re-procured during the next MTFP period. We currently lack both the capacity and skills in the case of two of these (leisure and parks) to ensure that the new contracts deliver the right combination of efficiencies, high quality services and service innovations, hence the requirement to bolster resources and bring in external expertise in the short-term to deliver best value via these contracts whilst maintaining 'business as usual' in these service areas.

In total, the report pack proposes £1.296m of investment for the Communities directorate, and identifies a pressure of £0.244m relating to the cost of procuring a new leisure contract.

Corporate Services

The report pack proposes a range of savings across the Corporate Services directorate, totalling £1.019m over the three year period to 2028. The report pack proposes a number of investments and pressures totalling £0.397m over the same period, leading to a proposed net reduction of £0.622m.

The single biggest saving proposed in the report pack is £0.340m from People and Culture non-staffing budgets.

The most significant proposed investment is £0.098m per year in 2025/26 and 2026/27 for the Coroners Court. The report pack notes that, Dual running of the Coroners Court is required following the works at the Coroners Court at Horseferry Road.

The most significant pressure identified in the report pack relates to an anticipated increase in costs at the Coroners Court. The report pack states that, The Coroners Court service has been seeing a general increase in costs across supplies and services, as well as more specific increases on the re-tendering of contracts, which includes the Body Transportation service. The report pack identifies this as a pressure of £0.137m.

Finance and Resources

The report pack identifies a number of issues facing the Finance and Resources directorate, including national issues with the auditing of local authority accounts, and the challenge of funding the decarbonisation of the council's estate.

The report pack proposes a number of savings, pressures and investments for the directorate. Overall, the directorate proposes savings totalling £14.185m, pressures of £1.393m, and investments of £0.6m.

The biggest single saving proposed by the directorate is £8.406m from existing savings.

The biggest single pressure identified by the directorate is £1.375m relating to the costs of IT, including the employee helpdesk, IT Operations Management, and Infrastructure Modernisation, all of which are proposed investments in new IT systems and support.

The directorate proposes two significant investments. These are £0.32m in a new operating model for the council's contact centres, and £0.4m to improve the council's cyber security.