The Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 set out changes in the requirement for public sector organisations to deliver Value for Money (VfM) gains over the three years 2008/09 – 2010/11. The target for local government was £4.9 billion annual VfM gains by 2010/11. Although there were no specific targets allocated to individual Councils, guidance was given in January 2008 by the Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG) on how Local Authorities could derive their targets in proportion to the national target.
Using this guidance, Bath & North East Somerset Council’s derived targets are as follows:-
2008/09 – £4.81m (3.0%)
2009/10 - £9.77m (6.1%)
2010/11 - £14.90m (9.3%)
The targets are based as a percentage of baseline spend of £160.232m (this includes certain grant funded and capital expenditure and excludes schools spend).
Unlike efficiencies reported prior to 2008/09, all VfM gains must now be cashable (i.e. they release funding for use elsewhere to either invest in other services or keep council tax down) and ongoing (i.e. not a one-off gain).
Local Authorities are required to report the gains that they make by completing National Indicatior (NI) 179: Value For Money Gains. The indicator is submitted twice per year, once in October for the forecast savings to be achieved by the end of the year, and a final submission in July, which retrospectively reports the actual gain achieved.
The Council has now submitted the 2009/10 actual VfM gains figure, which shows gains of £10.45m (6.5%) in 2009/10, exceeding the locally derived target of £9.77m.
Click to view the pre-2008/09 Annual Efficiency Statements for Bath & North East Somerset Council