Issue - meetings

The Executive Director of Resources presented the minutes of the meeting of the Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) Board meeting held on 18^th November 2021 at which budget contributions from partner authorities had been discussed.  The proposed contributions had been reviewed in detail previously by senior Finance Officers from all of the authorities.

There were a number of budget pressures which were reflected in the figures reported to Members.  This included pressures arising from anticipated pay increases, pension contributions, increases to the rent for the premises used by WRS and increases to the financial settlement for ICT support.  Some of the pressures were more relevant to certain partner authorities than for others, such as for the Technical Officer for Animal Activity, which was reflected in the figures.  In total, Redditch Borough Council’s contribution would represent 17.53 per cent of the total budget for WRS in the 2022/23 financial year.

Members subsequently discussed the proposed budget settlement and in doing so noted that the Executive Committee could only determine the financial contribution from Redditch Borough Council.  The flexible approach to funding different posts to meet varying needs of partners in the county was welcomed as a fair funding model. 

During consideration of this item, the Executive Committee praised WRS for the team’s hard work during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Members commented that WRS had had to address new work pressures during the pandemic, such as those relating to lockdown restrictions on businesses.  The workload of the team had also been impacted in other ways, such as through the increase in noise nuisance complaints, which had arisen during the lockdowns when more people were based at home.

RECOMMENDED that

partner authorities approve the following for 2022/2023:

a)         the 2022/23 gross expenditure budget of £3,891k;

b)         the 2022/23 income budget of 634k;

c)         the revenue budget and partner percentage allocations for 2022/2023 onwards:

d)         the additional partner liabilities for 2022/2023 in relation to unavoidable salary pressure:

e)         the additional partner liabilities for 2022/2023 in relation to hosting costs:

f)           Approve the additional partner liabilities for 2022/23 in relation to three Technical Officers.