Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from County Councillor Marcus Johnstone.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

None declared.

Resolved: - That the minutes of the meeting held on 4 December 2014 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

County Councillor Bill Winlow, Chair of the Executive Scrutiny Committee, confirmed that the recommendations set out in the reports for consideration by Cabinet had been confirmed without modification or amendment at the meeting of the Executive Scrutiny Committee held on 7 January 2015.

Resolved: - That the report of the Chair of the Executive Scrutiny Committee, now presented, be noted.

The Deputy Leader of the County Council presented a report setting out updates on matters affecting the Council's financial position, including the details of the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2015/16, which was announced on 18 December 2014. It was reported that the provisional settlement for 2015/16 would result in the Council's resources for 2015/16 being £0.202m lower than forecast.

The Deputy Leader indicated that discussion with the Minister had indicated that the position regarding future funding of the local welfare provision (the Council's Care and Urgent Needs Support Scheme) was not finalised, despite the provisional settlement. Written confirmation had also been sought that the future impact on the Council of the Care Act would be fully funded.

A number of responses to the previously published service offers put forward by the County Council's Management Team for informal consultation at the 6 November 2014 and 4 December 2014 meetings, had been received and it was reported that the service offers tabled today for formal consultation no longer included an option for the removal of bus subsidies.

The future financial situation would become clearer following the General Election on 7 May 2015 after which a new Government was expected to undertake a spending review.

The overall impact on the gap between spending and resources for the period 2015/16 - 2017/18 following the Local Government settlement was £176.873m. Savings proposed in the service offers across the three year period amounted to £155.948m leaving a remaining gap of £20.925m.

Reference was made to the proposed 1.99% increase in Council Tax, equivalent to an additional £7.474m, and to the proposed use of reserves in 2015/16 of £3.899m to enable a balanced budget. In addition, a legal challenge will be made by the County Council against the Government's decision to terminate the payment of the waste infrastructure grant from 31 July 2015 and that almost £6m was required to be set aside as a contingency in respect of this.

It was now proposed that the service offers tabled today would now be the subject of formal consultation until 4 February 2015 to enable all responses to be considered by Cabinet on 5 February 2015 at which meeting the Cabinet would make final recommendations to the Full Council for consideration on 12 February 2015.

Resolved: -

(i)  To note the update on the Council's position for 2015/16 and future years following the publication of the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2015/16 on 18 December 2014.

(ii)  To note that the Council will have estimated resources over the period 2015/16 to 2017/18 as follows, to invest in services for the communities of Lancashire:

Table 1 – Estimated Resources 2015/16 to 2017/18

  Table 1

(iii)To note that funding from the Government through business rates and revenue support grant has fallen grant from £351.2m in 2014/15 to £298.8m in 2015/16, a reduction  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Resolved: - That the report, now presented, on Key Decisions taken by the Leader of the County Council, the Deputy Leader of the County Council, the Cabinet Member for Adult and Community Services, the Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools, the Cabinet Member for Public Protection and Waste, the Director of Lancashire County Commercial Group, and the Interim Executive Director for Environment, respectively, be noted.

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

There was no urgent business to be considered.

The next meeting of the Cabinet will be held on Thursday 22 January 2015 at 2.00 pm at County Hall, Preston.

The Cabinet noted that, in a change to the published agenda, the next meeting would be held on Thursday 5 February 2015 at 2.00pm at County Hall, Preston.