Agenda item

The Executive Director of Resources, Bromsgrove District Council (BDC) and Redditch Borough Council (RBC), introduced the report and in doing so drew Members’ attention to the recommendations as detailed on pages 21 to 23 of the main agenda report.

The budget helped each partner authority to set their Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP). 

Members were further informed that the following assumptions had been made in relation to the projections:

·         2% pay award across all staff for 2022/23 – 2024/25.  This would be subject to the National Pay Negotiations that were ongoing and therefore the final position would reflect any formally agreed increases, the budget also included any employee entitled to an incremental increase.

·         Increase in Rent of £7k.

·         Increase in ICT Hosting of £15.5k.

·         Increase in Support Hosting of £10k.

·         Total partner contributions as detailed at Appendix 2.

·         Income projections as included at Appendix 3.

·         No inflationary increases in supplies and services, premises or transport.

·         Pension back-funding would be paid by all partners.

The unavoidable salary pressures were not able to be met currently by WRS making additional income, therefore, an increase to partner funding would be required, as detailed on page 24 of the main agenda report.

With regard to the changes in rent, ICT and support hosting, it should be noted that officer representatives of each partner authority had met to check and challenge the reasonableness of the proposed increases. The increases were seen as modest increases.  

These pressures were not able to be met currently by WRS, therefore, an increase to partner funding would be required, as detailed on page 25 of the main agenda report.

The Executive Director of Resources and the Head of Regulatory Services responded to questions from Members with regard to the revenue budget and partner percentage allocation calculations.

RECOMMENDED that partner authorities approve the following for 2022/2023:

a)    the 2022/23 gross expenditure budget of £3,891k as shown in Appendix 1.

b)    the 2022/23 income budget of 634k as shown in Appendix 1.

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