Archived decisions

Appendix 1

Calculation of the base budget

1 Summary of changes in the base budget

2 Full year cost of inflation to November 2008 prices

2.1 The original budget has been increased by the actual costs of inflation to November 2008. Total inflation is £395,000 for pay and prices.

3 Increments

3.1 These are the gross costs of increments less savings on turnover. The net cost for firefighters is nil and for support staff is £24,000.

4 Interest and provision for statutory debt repayment costs

4.1 Interest payable to both the Public Works Loans Board and the County Council together with the amount that has to be set aside for the statutory provision for debt repayment decrease these budget heads overall by a net £313,000 in 2009/10. This is mainly due to reduced borrowing as a result of more capital receipts being assumed and also lower interest rates.

5 Full year effect of previous years' growth and budget adjustments

5.1 These decrease the budget by £354,000. This is mainly due to the one year adjustments included in the budget for the contributions to the modernisation and capital payments reserves offset by the reduction in the general balance.

6 Retained pay - number of incidents

6.1 The budget is currently based on 24,198 incidents. This was calculated using the agreed formula which takes the average of the last five years excluding the highest and lowest years to avoid any distortion of exceptional years.

6.2 The formula has been calculated for 2009/10 and the average number of incidents decreases to 23,692 which in turn decreases the retained pay budget by £52,000.

7 Provision for future inflation

7.1 The provision for inflation from November 2008 to March 2010 has been calculated based on 2.5% for firefighters and for support staff, 5.0% for pension payments that the Authority is still liable for and 2.5% for most other costs (the notable exception being electricity which has been provided for at 71%) An increase in local government employer's pension contributions of 0.5% has also been provided for.

8 HFRA firefighters pension costs

8.1 The pension costs for which the Authority is liable for are estimated to decrease by £34,000 in 2009/10.

9 Reduction in leasing costs

9.1 This is the reduction in costs in the year of the operational leasing charges falling out as leases expire offset by some additional revenue costs of finance leases taken out.