Issue details

The purpose of this report is to outline a number of efficiency savings to be captured during the 2014/15 financial year, enabling the Council to achieve a balanced budget for the following year.

The Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy sets out the broad principles on which the management of the Council’s finances are based and provides background information regarding the level of resources, the revenue budget and capital programme.

When considering the strategy in October 2013, the Executive recognised a £800,000 gap in the Council's budget for 2015/16 and requested the Chief Executive Officer to prepare and bring forward a range of options to close the budget gap. 

Such options have been considered and developed using the following four-part model:-

·      Procurement - delivering cost savings through improved procurement;

·      Proceeds - identifying opportunities to maximise income returns;

·      People - reducing overheads and back office costs; and

·      Priorities - re-focussing resources on priority services.

This review, to date, has given rise to £777,000 of efficiency proposals which will be taken forward over the course of the next financial year in readiness for the 2015/16 budget cycle. 

As part of this process, a review of the Council's employee structure has been undertaken. As a result of the review it is proposed to delete 7 posts from the establishment, of which 3are vacant, resulting in annual savings of £391,000 from 2015/16 onwards. These posts would be deleted during 2014 in order that the severance costs of the proposals can largely be contained within the existing establishment budget.