Issue - meetings

(1)       The consolidated revenue budget monitoring position as at 30 November 2018 was noted;

(2)       The draft WMCA consolidated revenue budget, summarised in Section 4, was approved for consultation and scrutiny. This included:

(a)       the budget requirement for transport delivery 2019/20 comprising two elements:

(i)         £114.7m a year to be funded from the existing transport levy mechanism; and

(ii)        a transfer from earmarked reserves of £1.0m.

(b)        the WMCA Operational budget requirement for 2019/20 of £103.1m comprising of six elements:

(i)         £84.2m Adult Education spending to be funded for the first time from Adult Education Budget funding devolved by the Department for Education;

(ii)        £10.6m to be funded from other devolution deal grants;

(iii)       £4.6m to be funded from Constituent Authority fees (fees to remain at the same level as 2018/19);

(iv)       £0.4m to be funded from Non-Constituent Authority and observer fees (fees to remain at the same level as 2018/19);

(v)        £2.2m to be funded from other income; and

(vi)       a transfer from reserves of £1.1m.

(3)       The Mayoral Office budget for 2019/20 of £0.8m, to be funded from existing Mayoral capacity funding of £0.8m, was approved for consultation and scrutiny.

(4)       It was noted that the Mayor had indicated that there would be no mayoral precept during the remainder of his current term of office.

(5)       The WMCA’s indicative 5 year Medium Term Financial Plan, as set out in Paragraph 7.2 and Table 8, was noted.

(6)       The Transport Capital Programme, as set out in Section 8 and Appendix 4, was approved for consultation and scrutiny.

(7)       The planned spend on the Investment Programme over the 3 year period, as set out Appendix 7 and in Section 9, was noted.

(8)       It was approved that surplus cash balances generated from the Collective Investment Fund were to be used to support the WMCA Operational Budget, thus minimising Constituent and Non-Constituent Authority contributions.

(9)       The intention, as detailed in section 8, to launch a commercial housing fund in 2019/20 to enable the Housing Delivery Team to become self-sufficient with effect from 2021/22 onwards was noted.