Teignbridge Council's revised budget address £5m gap
The money has come from a mixture of Government grants and council savings
A revised budget that addresses the £5m budget gap that Teignbridge District Council was facing has been agreed.
Councillors on Wednesday morning supported the measures that the council had taken following the significant loss of income and extra expenditure that the council incurred as a result of the coronavirus lockdown.
Government grants account for just over £3m of the proposed budget gap, with the remaining £2m coming from savings that the council have made from in-year budgets, with Martin Flitcroft, the chief finance officer, saying that as much as possible, they wouldn’t affect frontline services.
Explaining the variations from the budget, Mr Flitcroft said that at the start of the pandemic the Government had asked us to ‘do whatever it takes’ to react to the situation, but it is not clear how Government will support us in the future.
He added: “We had frozen the £2m savings from the current year budgets until we had more clarity and these are now incorporated into the revised revenue budget.”
Among the savings include a freeze on recruitment for this year in relation to vacant posts, saving £400,000, the elimination of any contribution from revenue to capital to support the capital programme of £600,000, savings in travel and fuel of £100,000 partly due to changed working patterns and a reduction in the predicted price of fuel.
Other savings include reductions in repairs and maintenance of £100,000, savings which naturally occurred as a result of services not operating, such as leisure centres, energy and consumables, of around £500,000, which a reduction in rural aid of £25,000 this year has been made.
Further savings have been made via the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme as the council had furloughed a significant number of posts, while any shortfall in the budget could be made up by reserves, the meeting heard.
Cllr Richard Keeling, portfolio holder for resources, added:
“It is has taken time for funding streams to come through and the Government have been slow to understand the scale of our losses. This is the savings plan for £2.1m, but predictions of future incomes will be very difficult with uncertainty around lockdowns, vaccines, and actions of the general public.”
Leader of the council, Cllr Alan Connett, added that all council meetings would remain virtual until at least the end of 2020, and that they were modelling home working into the permanent arrangements for how the council operates going forward.
He said that they would then rent out the space at their Forde House HQ in Newton Abbot that they no longer need to bring in a rental income, which would both support services and create a space for businesses.