14 October - Public Cabinet report. Budget monitoring
After Councillors stood for a minute in tribute to
James Brokenshire
MP who died last week Council Leader Teresa O’Neill launched Public Cabinet
with her announcement that Bexley Council won’t be needing its Capitalisation
Order or “overdraft” as it was called. It has sacked enough staff and cut enough
services to get by without needing it which is a good result for anyone who has
never worked for the Council or required anything more than a bin emptying and
enough street lighting to avoid falling down a pothole. More seriously it is “a good achievement”
and better than the alternative.
The Leader confirmed that a claim will be made against Serco for its failure to provide adequate services.
The Finance Director said the Council was currently on course to overspend by
£142,000 this year. There was £11·3 million of Covid related expenditure
(including loss of income) but £7·2 million was funded by Government. The
balance came from the Council’s contingency budget.
Financial risks remain, social care and demographic changes in particular. The
Capital Programme is underspent by 7% which is £6 million; it relates to lack of progress on the
Erith Regeneration programme and various Highways schemes. Not taking up the
Capitalisation Order will save £176,000 in interest costs for this year alone and up to £397,000
in following years.
Cabinet Member David Leaf said he was assessing the impact of the Serco strike. There was a loss of income
on recyclables and the cost of the mitigation measures taken by the Council. He
referenced “Members who chose to cheer from the picket lines to criticise those
who worked during the strike and called for the strike to last until the 3rd of
October should reflect not only on the impact on our residents but also the
environmental impact and the potential financial pressures industrial action
cause. They should care about climate change and should care about actions that
help us divert waste to recycling and help our residents to recycle more”.
Cabinet Member for Education John Fuller said the estimated £5 million deficit
on the Dedicated Schools Grant has been reduced to £3·4 million. Not so good is
that “it projects to over £15 million”. The DofE has visited five London
boroughs with worse deficits and will come to Bexley soon. Bexley has done some
good things in this area and the DofE expects to take the ideas to other boroughs.
Councillor Wendy Perfect was critical of the Designated (sic)
Schools Grant saying that Bexley “was not doing very well compared to other boroughs”.
The SEN costs are rising and there is a large turnover of staff. She was told
that the situation has been reviewed and it - whatever that might be - has been approved.
Councillor Nicola Taylor said there were 1,166 households in temporary
accommodation. Residents are still being moved out of the borough with families
losing their support networks and children their schools. More money should be
directed at solving that problem. She was told that £3·227 million had been.
Councillor Joe Ferreira wanted to be sure that brown bins would be included in
the Serco assessments. The extended residents’ contracts will have a financial
cost. The Leader said she could “assure Councillor Ferreira that absolutely will be included.”
Labour Leader Stefano Borella was concerned about the collection rate on Business Rates being so low. He was
told that it would take “at least between three and five years” to get things back on track.
Stefano reminded his colleagues that the various financial controls in place
were put there before March 2020 and are not Covid related. The Leader said
introducing the controls was “absolutely the right thing to do and to continue them until today”.
No Conservative Councillor asked a question.
Note: Following the report from
Councillor Putson of how residents used to go about getting the Council to
install pedestrian crossings may I repeat that his story dates back to nineteen
eighty something and the reported Mayoral throwing out of the public from a
meeting was not the work of James Hunt? It is possible that back in 1980 James
may have occasionally indulged in throwing toys out of his pram, but he is most
definitely not that way inclined any more.