Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed all attendees to the meeting and explained the emergency evacuation procedure.

None.

To note any declarations of interest from councillors. They are asked to indicate the relevant agenda item, the nature of the interest and in particular whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.  Any declaration of interest made at the meeting which is not on the register of interests should be notified to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion.

The following declarations of interest were noted:

Cllr Hucker – Non-Executive Director of Bristol Waste Company

Cllr Blake – Non-Executive Director of North Bristol NHS Trust; Chair of Second Step Board

Cllr Dyer (also in attendance) advised that he was a Trustee of Bristol Museum Development Trust

Up to 30 minutes is allocated for public forum items.  This public forum session will cover both Part 1 and Part 2 of this meeting of the Finance Sub-Committee, i.e. there will not be a separate Public Forum for Part 2 of this meeting which is being held on 16 January.

PLEASE NOTE: No decisions on the Council’s budget will be taken by the Finance Sub-Committee at this meeting held on 15/16 January.  The comments of the Finance Sub-Committee from this meeting will be reported to the 3 February meeting of the Strategy and Resources Committee.  On 3 February, the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee will determine budget recommendations to be submitted to the Full Council budget meeting on 25 February 2025.

Any member of the public or councillor may participate in Public Forum. Public Forum items must relate to the remit of the committee and should be addressed to the Chair of the committee.

Members of the public who plan to attend a public meeting at City Hall are advised that you will be required to sign in when you arrive. Please note that you will be issued with a visitor pass which you will need to display at all times.

Please also note:

Questions

1.      Written public questions must be received by 5.00 pm, at least 3 clear working days prior to the meeting. For this meeting, this means that questions must be received at the latest by 5.00 pm on Thursday 9 January. Please email questions to  www.bristol.gov.uk/publicforum

2.      Any individual can submit up to 3 written questions.

3.      Written replies to questions will be available on the Council’s website at least one hour before the meeting.

4.      At the meeting, questioners will be permitted to ask up to 2 oral supplementary questions.

Statements

1.      Written statements must be received at latest by 12.00 noon, at least 2 working days prior to the meeting. For this meeting, this means that statements must be received at the latest by 12.00 noon on Monday 13 January. Please email statements to www.bristol.gov.uk/publicforum

2.      Statements, provided they are no more than 1,000 words in length, will be circulated to all committee members and will be published on the Council’s website at least one hour before the meeting.

Petitions

1.      Details of the wording of any petitions, and the number of signatories to petitions must be received at latest by 12.00 noon, at least 2 working days prior to the meeting. For this meeting, this means that petition details must be received at the latest by 12.00 noon on Monday 13 January. Please email petition details to policycommittees@bristol.gov.uk

2.      At the meeting, individuals presenting petitions may be required to read out the objectives of the petition.

When submitting a question or statement please indicate whether you are planning to attend the meeting to present your statement ask your question

Public questions:

It was noted that 12 public questions had been submitted to this meeting as follows:

Questions 1, 2, 3: Diane Pocock: Reablement team

Question 4: Katrin Skyrme: Postage

Questions 5, 6: Elizabeth Ind: School crossing patrols

Question 7: Katy Taylor: Carers

Question 8: Katy Taylor: Equalities impact assessment (domestic abuse services)

Question 9: Katy Taylor: Gender budgeting

Questions 10, 11, 12: Rachel Fagan - Arts cuts

In relation to Question 7, Katy Taylor asked the following supplementary question:

‘Some of the women that we speak with, who are doing unpaid care, will talk about how a carer’s assessment will only ever document the hours of care that is needed, in addition to the care they are already doing, so that unpaid care they are already doing doesn’t necessarily get automatically included in the care assessment; so the care assessment, for example, might say that a person requires 2 hours worth of care but actually what that might mean is that they’re not counting the 6 hours that the carer is already doing.  So can you provide a reassurance that the care assessments will also include an accurate documentation of the unpaid care for care hours they are already doing?’

It was noted that a written response would be prepared in response to this supplementary question.

In relation to Question 8, Katy Taylor asked the following supplementary question:

‘The response given was related to the proposed cuts and I recognise they don’t impact on current service provision. My question, however, related to the whole of the cuts that are proposed, the cuts to care that I outlined in my previous question, but also the potential cuts to domestic violence; we are concerned the cuts will have a disproportionate impact on women, women who are carers as well as those who are experiencing domestic violence; and what I wanted to know about was the equality impact assessment that’s been done on the proposed cuts and whether that equality impact assessment has, as per good practice, included an assessment of the cumulative impact, the intersectional impact and the impact on individuals as well as households and the impact on unpaid care.  The response came back around domestic violence services. but my question was related to all of the cuts, especially those across the care sector.’

It was noted that a written response would be prepared in response to this supplementary question.

In relation to Question 10, Rachel Fagan asked the following supplementary question:

‘Can the City Council please confirm whether the Cultural Investment Programme will actually be funded when this round of funding ends in 2027/28?’

In responding (at the request of the Chair), Cllr Dyer, Leader of the Council, advised that at present, it was important to recognise that the budget proposals were early savings options; it was not possible, at this point, pending feedback and further discussions, to say if the proposals would definitely be progressed - this would ultimately be determined by the Full Council at its  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

This report provides detail on the General Fund budget challenge (as revised for the provisional local government financial settlement) and the developing savings proposals to manage the General Fund financial gap, plus the outline of the Housing Revenue Account financial challenge and developing savings proposals, to enable the Finance Sub-Committee to review these as part of the process of supporting the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee in the development of the budget.

The Finance Sub-committee is a standing, established sub-committee of the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee, responsible for the development of the Council’s annual budget, which is subsequently presented to the Strategy and Resources Committee and then to Full Council for approval.

PLEASE NOTE: No decisions on the Council’s budget will be taken by the Finance Sub-Committee at this meeting held on 15/16 January.  The comments of the Finance Sub-Committee from this meeting will be reported to the 3 February meeting of the Strategy and Resources Committee.  On 3 February, the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee will determine budget recommendations to be submitted to the Full Council budget meeting on 25 February 2025.

This meeting is being held in two parts on 15 and 16 January 2025, with Policy Committee Chairs invited to introduce and highlight key areas, as follows:

15 January (Please note: timings are indicative)

·       Adult Social Care – 2.30 pm (40 mins)

·       Children & Young People – 3.10 pm (35 mins)

·       Public Health & Communities – 3.45 pm (15 mins)

·       Transport & Connectivity – 4.00 pm (35 mins)

·       Environment & Sustainability – 4.35 pm (15 mins)

The Sub-Committee will adjourn on 15 January once the above matters have been considered and will reconvene at 4.00 pm on 16 January to consider the following areas (timings are indicative):

·       Economy & Skills – 4.00 pm (15 mins)

·       Strategy & Resources – 4.15 pm (60 mins)

·       Homes & Housing Delivery, to include Housing Revenue Account – 5.15 pm (90 mins)

The Sub-Committee considered a report which presented the latest, developing 2025/26 budget savings proposals.

The Chair made the following opening comments:

1. The report before the Committee provided detail on the scale of the very significant General Fund budget challenge faced by the Council and the savings proposals that were being developed to manage the General Fund financial gap.  The report also outlined the Housing Revenue Account financial challenge and the related, developing savings proposals. The Chair stressed the importance of balancing the Council’s budget which was a legal requirement for Council tax setting and an essential step in the financial management of the Council to ensure that it lived within its means. For all councils under financial stress, there remained the risk of a S114 notice, which was where a Council publicly reported that it could no longer fund its expenditure from available income. It was imperative that every step was taken to ensure this was not a situation Bristol City Council found itself in.   

2. Since the summer, updates on the scale of the financial challenge and the consequent mitigating actions had been the subject of reports to each meeting of the Strategy and Resources Committee, with regular reporting also to the individual policy committees on the financial position.

3. The Finance Sub-Committee was a standing, established sub-committee of the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee.  Since late summer and on through the autumn, the sub-committee had held a series of meetings, where members had been briefed about the ongoing actions to mitigate the budget challenge, the development of the budget consultation which was carried out over November-December and on the development of the emerging savings proposals.

4. As indicated on the agenda, and as per the detail included in the agenda papers, the Finance Sub-Committee would, at this two-part meeting, review and discuss specific savings proposals across each Policy Committee’s remit.  Policy Committee Chairs and relevant Directors/senior officers were in attendance to respond to members’ questions.

5. At the 15 January session, members would review savings proposals in relation to:

- Environment and Sustainability

- Children and Young People

- Public Health and Communities

- Economy and Skills

- Transport and Connectivity

6. At the end of the session, the meeting would be adjourned; the Sub-Committee would then reconvene at 4.00 pm on 16 January to review the savings proposals in relation to:

- Adult Social Care

- Strategy and Resources

- Homes and Housing Delivery, including Housing Revenue Account budget proposals.

7. The Chair clarified that the Finance Sub-Committee’s role over the two sessions was essentially to comment and make observations on the proposals.  This Sub-Committee had no decision-making powers. 

8. Following the sessions, members’ comments would be reported formally to the 3 February meeting of the Strategy and Resources Committee.  On 3 February, the Strategy and Resources Committee would determine budget recommendations to be submitted to the Full Council budget meeting on 25 February 2025.  The Full Council must agree a balanced budget.

9. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.