East Sussex "Uncertain Finances" Concern

County councillors have raised concerns about “significant uncertainty” as work begins on the authority’s annual budget-setting process. 

In recent years, East Sussex County Council has preceded its budget-setting with a financial planning process known as Reconciling Policy, Performance and Resources or RPPR.

As part of this RPPR process, the council’s two scrutiny committees consider the available financial resources and make recommendations back to cabinet members.

But at a meeting of the place scrutiny committee on Wednesday (September 23), councillors raised concerns about the whether they could make such recommendations in the face of the uncertain financial position surrounding Covid-19.

They included Godfrey Daniel, co-leader of the council’s Labour group, who said:

“There are so many unknowns it is almost impossible for scrutiny at this moment in time to make recommendations about anything.

“Even if we didn’t have Covid and everything else we would still be making savings/cuts [of £3.5m] in this financial year.

“The one thing the government should have realised with all this is the importance of local government and I hope we can all agree on that point.

“If I remember rightly the government had promised local government that it would be compensated for whatever had been spent on Covid, but we need to see that money in our accounts.

“Personally I’m uncomfortable with cutting local government even more.

"If there ever was any fat on the bone that has gone many, many years ago now and we are down to a situation where people are more dependent on local government services and there is less money to look after people.”

Similar concerns were raised by Cllr Andy Smith (Con, Telscombe), who highlighted the economic impacts on the council’s income from places other than government grants. 

He said:

“The report strikes me as being a very standard early stage budget report but we are living in exceptional times.

“I was just wondering, are you guys looking at some of the early indicators which might create larger savings requirements?

"For example the income streams that we have. 

“Are there any early indications that council tax has not been paid, business rates have not been paid and income is down?

"If so, is that quantifiable so that we get a better picture of where we might be as we go through the process?”

In response, officers said they were modelling several potential positions in terms of income, but warned the situation remained uncertain. 

While several other councillors also raised concerns about the uncertainty of the council’s financial, some areas for potential savings were discussed.

Conservative councillor John Barnes (Rother North West), for example, recommended that the council look at its office accommodation and the potential for using Artificial Intelligence (AI), to see if any efficiency savings could be made there.

He said:

“Both of those could generate economies which would prevent us from hitting services.

“I think the AI situation needs to be kept under constant review because its progress is very fast. 

“If we can increase the productivity of our workforce in anyway possible this would actually help us face a very difficult financial situation.”

Officers confirmed the council is looking at both areas suggested by Cllr Barnes, including the use of “robotic process automation” to improve efficiency. 

While a sci-fi sounding concept, in reality such systems are typically bits of software which can carry out simple tasks, such as copying and pasting information between documents, without requiring much human input. 

However officers warned that the efficiency benefits of such tools would be “extremely limited”, due to the scale of the council’s previous cost-cutting work over the past 10 years.

The meeting marks only the beginning of the place scrutiny committee’s involvement in the RPPR process, with more detailed work to be carried out ahead of another meeting in November.

The people scrutiny committee is carrying out a similar process at the same time. 

The areas highlighted by these committees will be fed into the cabinet’s decision-making as it brings forward budget proposals early next year.