Issue - meetings

The Executive Director of Resources presented recommendations that had been made at a recent meeting of the Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) Board in respect of budget contributions from partner authorities in the 2022/23 financial year.  There were a number of pressures on the WRS budget, including pay inflation of 2 per cent, increases to rent for the WRS offices and increases in expenditure on ICT support.  As the host authority for WRS, Bromsgrove District Council received funding from partners for the provision of support services, such as financial services, and it was proposed that this should increase by £10,000.  Overall, the Council’s contribution to the budget for WRS in the 2022/23 would be £475,000.

Members subsequently discussed the budget proposals from the WRS Board and in doing so noted that the 2 per cent pay award for WRS staff was higher than the 1 per cent pay award for Bromsgrove District Council staff that had been built into assumptions in the Council’s existing budget.  Officers explained that these assumptions were being reviewed as part of the budget setting process.

Reference was also made to expenditure on the Tech Officer for Gull Control and questions were raised about the level of expenditure on this officer. Cabinet was advised that there were particular issues with seagull guano in Worcester City, which contributed the funding towards this post.

RECOMMENDED that the following be approved for 2022/2023:

a)          the 2022/23 gross expenditure budget of £3,891k.

b)          the 2022/23 income budget of 634k.

c)          the revenue budget and partner percentage allocations for 2022/2023 onwards:

d)          the additional partner liabilities for 2022/2023 in relation to unavoidable salary pressure:

e)    the additional partner liabilities for 2022/2023 in relation to hosting costs:

f)            the additional partner liabilities for 2022/23 in relation to three Technical Officers.