A cabinet member to brief on the budget consultation process.
Minutes:
Councillor Mohamed, Cabinet Member for Equalities and Community Engagement, introduced the item a ‘fairer future for all which outlined proposals for the budget consultation. Cllr Mohamed explained that the council expected to receive a cut of 25% in funding from central government but the council would know more following the announcement on the Comprehensive Spending Review on 20 October 2010, the council had already had to make £5 million worth of cuts in 2010/11. He explained that consultation would take place and that cabinet members would attend the community council meeting again in November and the outcomes would be reported in March 2010.
Cllr Mohamed took questions from the floor relating to: protecting public sector jobs, explaining the level of local choice in budgeting and what money is ring-fenced, the impact of the census and population information on the level of government funding received, the regeneration agreement for elephant and castle and how meaningful the budget consultation would be and whether a breakdown of how the budget was spent across services could be provided.
In response Cllr Mohamed explained that the cabinet wanted to include people in the budget process in order to find solutions to the expected reductions, that the council would know more following the announcement on the Comprehensive Spending Review on 20 October, that the census was extremely important in determining the level of funding the council would receive in the future and that it was hoped the consultation would influence the final decisions taken by the council.