Agenda item

The circulated report sought Members to agree and set the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee budget for the financial year 2024/25.

Prior to the introduction to the report, it was stated that the Chair of the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee had received a letter from the Chair of the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee – Overview and Scrutiny Sub Committee; the letter contained the Overview and Scrutiny Sub Committee’s response to the draft budget for 2024/25, which they considered during their meeting held on 16 January 2024.

The Chair of the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee – Overview and Scrutiny Sub Committee was present at the meeting to provide representation, and raise the key points expressed throughout the letter.

In response, the Chair of the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee provided assurances that the Committee would continue to lobby Welsh Government for the appropriate resources in order to undertake the work required of them.

Officers explained that the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee was responsible for setting its budget and agreeing the levy charge to constituent authorities; this had to be set and agreed prior to 31 January 2024. It was added that the levy allocation was based on population size.

Similar to previous years, it was concluded that the National Park Authorities would not be subject to a levy charge for the financial year 2024/25.

Members were informed of the three budget options for consideration. The Chief Finance Officer provided an overview of the options, which were detailed in the circulated report.

·        Option 1 - Continuity budget in 2024/25

·        Option 2 - Continuity budget minus 10% in 2024/25

·        Option 3 - Optimal Full Cost Operational Budget in 2024/25

Reference was made to option three, which had an estimated expenditure of £2,082,899. It was expressed that this option would be very challenging given the position of the public sector funding and difficulty Local Authorities were facing in terms of budget setting.

It was explained that option one and option two were the same in terms of delivery; the only difference was that option two detailed a 10% reduction on the levy from constituent Local Authorities, given the budgetary pressures they were faced with. However, it was noted that the 10% could currently be funded from the reserves, meaning that the expenditure could still be delivered without cutting services; the utilisation of 10% from the reserves would still provide a healthy level of reserves, which would allow the Corporate Joint Committee to be developed over the forthcoming period.

Discussion took place in regards to the position of the four Sub Committees and delivering their work streams; the circulated report detailed what could be delivered in regards to each budget option. It was mentioned that there will be a significant amount of work that will develop going forward.

It was noted that the recommended option was ‘continuity budget minus 10% in 2024/25’; which was detailed as option two in the circulated report. It was clarified that the second option was costed at £615,049 with a reserve offset of 10% (minus £59,071) giving a net position of £555,978; this net position will be split between the four Local Authorities on a population basis, and will be the levy in which they will individually have to incorporate into their own budget setting process.

RESOLVED:

·        That the budget for the Corporate Joint Committee be set at £615,049 (Continuity with 10% levy reduction), as detailed in Appendix B of the circulated report, be approved.

·        That the Levy Charge, based on population to the constituent authorities, be approved as follows:

Local Authority Levy 2024/25

·        City and County of Swansea Council (Levy) - £191,188

·        Carmarthenshire County Council (Levy) – £151,281

·        Neath Port Talbot CBC (Levy) - £114,094

·        Pembrokeshire County Council (Levy) - £99,414

Total = £555,978