Recommendations
The Leaders’ Committee is asked to agree:
• an overall level of expenditure of £6.909 million for the Grants Scheme in 2019/20 (inclusive of £241,000 residual gross ESF programme);
• that taking into account the application of £58,000 ESF grant and £183,000 from accumulated reserves, borough contributions for 2019/20 should be £6.668 million;
• that further to the recommendations above, constituent councils be informed of the Committee's recommendation and be reminded that further to the Order issued by the Secretary of State for the Environment under Section 48 (4A) of the Local Government Act 1985, if the constituent councils have not reached agreement by the two-thirds majority specified before 1 February 2019 they shall be deemed to have approved expenditure of an amount equal to the amount approved for the preceding financial year (i.e. £8.668 million);
• that constituent councils be advised that the apportionment of contributions for 2019/20 will be based on the ONS mid-year population estimates for June 2017
• that subject to the approval of an overall level of expenditure, the Committee agrees to set aside a provision of £574,000 for costs incurred by London Councils in providing staff and other support services to ensure delivery of the Committee’s “making of grants” responsibilities, including ESF administration of £139,000 required to wind down the current programme; and
• that a decision on options over the level of Grants Committee reserves going forward should be deferred until the meeting of the Grants Executive Committee in February 2019, with proposals being considered by the main Grants Committee meeting in March 2019. By this time, the end of project position in respect of the S.48 ESF programme will be clearer. The outcome will be brought back to a later meeting of this Committee for approval.