Agenda item

            The Director of Finance and Resources submitted for the Committee’s consideration the undernoted report:

“1       Relevant Background Information

1.1     Members will be aware that to date the corporate efficiency programme has delivered savings of some £12m across the Council. At the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee on the 15 April 2011, it was agreed that a further indicative efficiency target of £2m per year for 2012-13 and 2013-14. In June 2011 Members agreed the areas where the efficiency savings should be targeted for 2012-13.

1.2     The purpose of this report is to present to Members the cash savings which have been identified and captured and to seek agreement on including them in the departmental budgets as part of the estimate setting for 2012-13.

2       Key Issues

2.1    Members should be aware that the programme has been developed in consultation with all departments and the Trade Union Efficiency Consultative Forum. We have used the same efficiency theme headings as previously agreed by SP&R Committee in May 2010. These cover the areas suggested by the HM Treasury as the fundamental key drivers for developing successful efficiency programmes.

2.2    These themes are:

·        Assets and Land

·        Procurement

·        Budgetary Challenge

·        ICT

·        Service Reviews

·        Income Generation

2.3    A total of £2.3m of cash savings have been identified and captured for 2012-13. The proposed split of the £2.38m efficiency target across the efficiency themes is set out in Table One below.

2.4    A summary of the savings under each theme within the proposed 2012-13 programme is provided at Appendix One.

2.5    2013/14 Efficiency Programme

         The Strategic Policy and Resources Committee in June 2011 agreed a £2m efficiency target for both 2012-13 and 2013-14. Table Two below shows that the council will have delivered £14m cash savings for the period 2006-07 to 2012-13.

         This means that cash savings for 2013-14 will become more difficult to identify and take longer to realise. For these reasons work has already started to identify potential cash savings for delivery in 2013-14. This includes:

·        A review of vacant posts, agency work and overtime;

·        The development of a terms of reference for a review of senior management arrangements;

·        A review of Fleet Management by an independent expert is near completion;

·        The implementation of recommendations emanating from an independent review of procurement;

·        The development of a programme to deliver further energy savings;

·        The development of terms of reference to review the council’s internal marketing arrangements;

·        The further development of an asset management efficiency programme; and

·        The further development of an ICT efficiency programme;

2.6    Further information on the development of the 2013-14 efficiency programme will be brought back to Members once the rate for 2012-13 has been set.

Table 2

3       Recommendations

3.1    Members are requested to:

·        Note the contents of the report.

·        Agree that the £2.38m cash savings identified by the efficiency programme for 2012/13 should be captured in the departmental budgets as part of the estimates setting for 2012-13.”

            After discussion, the Committee adopted the recommendations and agreed that a workstream be included within the Efficiency Programme to consider ways in which the Council could maximise value for money and optimise the use of some of its main assets such as the Belfast Waterfront Hall, the Belfast Zoological Gardens, Belfast Castle and Malone House.  The Chief Executive pointed out that an options appraisal had already been commissioned for the Waterfront Hall to explore the potential for exhibition facilities to be created and a report would shortly be presented to the Development Committee.