£4,339 per pupil

Labour Group in the evening - mainly discussing financial reports on the Cabinet Agenda for tomorrow.

The Council revenue budget numbers are a lot smaller than in previous years, as the Government has now removed schools funding into a separate ‘Dedicated Schools Grant’ (DSG – another acronym thrown into the already over-flowing sea of acronyms in local government finance). Previously schools’ spending made up over half of the budget. The good news is that this funding has seen a 6.8% increase per pupil (£4,339 per pupil, or the equivalent of 4.7 pints of London Pride a day)

The less good news is that non-schools grant has only risen by 2% - the “floor” or lowest possible rise for a Council this year. About half of London Boroughs get the same minimum 2% increase, although Hillingdon, Lambeth, Kensington and Chelsea and Camden have got over 3% (at least you can’t accuse the Government of political bias – only one of these four are a Labour Council). It could have been worse without the ‘floor’ system – changes to the formula for calculating Government grant would have cut £5.2 million in grant without the 2% minimum increase.

However, in the immortal words of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, “Don’t Panic”. The savings that I’ve posted about previously (see 9th January) will mean that the Council can live (however grudgingly) with this low grant increase, without needing further sudden cuts or a tax increase above last years’ 4.8%. Indeed the work being undertaken to squeeze out extra efficiency will hopefully produce an increase lower than this.

There’s also a report on the Cabinet agenda of the results of scrutiny of the draft the budget by the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee. One particularly interesting proposal they make is that the Cabinet should consider the future investment needs of the CCTV service, and in particular officers should look at the potential for contributions from partners. I and other supported this recommendation, and Cabinet Finance member Cllr Martin Beecroft is going to look at the options for future CCTV funding.