Issue - meetings

Item from Cabinet minutes of 11 February 2021 – to follow

In accordance with CPR 8.5 of the Constitution there will be a recorded vote for this item.

Due to the timescale and print deadline, the recommendations arising from the meeting of Cabinet will be circulated to Members in advance of the meeting of Council.

Item CB 21/19 referred from Cabinet minutes of 11 February 2021

It was proposed by Councillor Coffin and seconded by Councillor Heslop that the recommendations at Minute CB 21/19 be adopted.  In accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 8.5 voting was recorded as follows:

Members voting for the motion:

Councillors Anderson, Base, Bates, Bell, Betts, Bishop, Botten, Boughton, Branson, Bridge, Cannon, Coffin, Cooper, Dalton, Davis D, Davis M, Foyle, Heslop, Hickmott, Hoskins, Hudson, Keeley, Keers, Kemp, King D, King K, Lark, Lettington D, Lettington R, Luker, Montague, Oakley, Palmer, Rhodes, Rogers, Roud, Sergison, Shaw, Stapleton, Tanner, Tatton, Taylor, Thomas, Thornewell, Tombolis and Williams.

Total = 46

Members voting against the motion:

Councillors Clark and Hood

Total = 2

Members abstaining:

Councillors Dean and Kennedy

Total = 2

(Total Members eligible to vote = 50)

(In accordance with paragraph 15 of the Protocol for Use of Video-conferencing facilities the no response from Councillor Kennedy was recorded as an abstention.)

RESOLVED:  That the recommendations at Minute CB 21/19 be approved.

Further to reports to the meeting of the Finance, Innovation and Property Advisory Board and Overview and Scrutiny Committee earlier in the cycle, this report updates Cabinet on issues relating to the Medium Term Financial Strategy.  It also takes Members through the necessary procedures in order to set the Budget for 2021/22.

Further to the reports to the Finance, Innovation and Property Advisory Board and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee earlier in the cycle, the joint report of the Chief Executive, Director of Finance and Transformation, the Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Innovation and Property updated the Cabinet on issues relating to the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and gave details of the necessary procedure to be followed in order to set the budget for 2021/22.

In addition, the budget setting process for this year had to incorporate the difficult task of estimating the scale of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Borough Council’s finances both in the short and medium term.

Members noted that, as at the time of publishing the report the final settlement had not been confirmed, all figures contained in the report were based on the provisional local government finance settlement received in December 2020. The Director of Finance and Transformation advised that it was now confirmed that the final local government finance settlement was the same as the figures previously announced. The Settlement Funding Assessment (SFA) was for one year only (2021/22) and the Fair Funding Review had been deferred for a further year.

It was also noted that the settlement figures included funding in 2021/22 for ‘negative RSG’; New Homes Bonus legacy payments and funding allocation and a one off Lower Tier Services grant allocation.

Attention was drawn to recommendations from Advisory Boards and the decision of the Licensing and Appeals Committee regarding the levels of fees and charges to be implemented from 1 April 2021 (as set out at Annex 2 to the report). 

The report then described the remaining procedure to be followed in setting the budget for 2021/22 and calculating the council tax.  For the purposes of updating the MTFS a council tax increase of £5 in 2021/22 had been assumed and for each year thereafter.

The Cabinet deliberated on the most appropriate guidance to offer the Council as the way forward for updating the MTFS for the next ten year period and setting the council tax for 2021/22.  Members were advised of details of special expenses for the same period.

An updated copy of the Savings and Transformation Strategy was presented, including revised outline targets and timescales to be revisited and aligned with the latest projected ‘funding gap’.  Members were also reminded that the funding gap set out in the report assumed that all the recommendations made by Advisory Boards and Committees, as summarised in paragraph 1.9.22 of the report, were delivered.  If for whatever reason these were found not to be deliverable, the funding gap and therefore the savings and transformation target would increase.

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Innovation and Property referred to the ‘essential spend only’ policy adopted by the Borough Council during the coronavirus pandemic and proposed that this good practice continued into 2021/22 until well into the recovery phase post Covid 19. This continuation would not have specific targets attached; but would be expected  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19