To receive a report from the Leader of the Council identifying key issues from the last six months.

The Committee received a report from the Leader of the Council identifying key issues from the last six months.

The Leader expanded on the main themes of the report published with the agenda papers, highlighting the following aspects:

·         The implications of the reforms proposed by the new Government which represented enormous change.

·         The consequences for local government of the measures to reduce public service expenditure.  He outlined particular concerns about the removal of specific grants, for example for rural bus services. He informed the Committee that representations had been made to retain ring fenced support for rural transport, or provide authorities with the option to charge senior citizens a modest sum for its use, on the basis that this would be preferable to losing the service altogether.  He had also made representations requesting the retention of Dedicated Schools Grant and that funding for the ten poorest funded authorities (which included Herefordshire) should be protected.

·         He advised that the Executive had been making preparations in response to the expected reductions in expenditure, for example the development of the shared services programme. He emphasised the intention to deliver services more efficiently and cut bureaucracy rather than services.

·         The scope for Parish Councils to initiate local schemes and finance them through the parish precept.

·         The development of partnership working with the Voluntary Sector.

·         The hope that the development of a Local Enterprise Partnership with Shropshire and Telford to promote local economic development would receive Government approval soon.

·         The challenge of the high costs of social care and the importance of integrated commissioning.

·         The development of Broadband and the importance of improving the level of earnings in the County which lagged behind the average in the Country as a whole.

·         The investment of over £4m made in Hereford City Centre during his period of office.

·         The challenges presented to the County by an ageing population and the requirement to deliver services over a large sparsely populated rural area.

In discussion the following principal points were made:

·         The constraints on future capital expenditure were discussed, noting the pressures to develop the County’s infrastructure.  The Leader commented that the Council would continue to have the power to borrow money.  He highlighted the distinction between supported (Government backed) borrowing and prudential borrowing noting that of the Council’s current borrowing £90m out of £125m was supported borrowing.  The Executive recognised the need to monitor the level of borrowing and in particular unsupported borrowing.  However, it was clear that housing developers, for example, would have to make a much larger contribution to the Council in future to support the provision of the associated infrastructure their developments needed.

·         The pressures on social care budgets and the high costs of individual care packages were acknowledged and the importance of planning for transition from children’s social care to adult social care.

·         It was asked whether turnover of senior officers had affected the capacity to progress organisational change. The Leader considered that there had not been capacity issues and the establishment of joint health and social care posts was a sensible measure.

The Leader concluded by saying that he considered the administration had set out how it proposed to meet the challenges ahead, with a focus on cutting bureaucracy rather than frontline services.  He challenged Members, if they disagreed with this approach, to put forward clear alternative proposals.

The Chairman thanked the Leader for his presentation.