Issue - meetings

Due to the timescales and print deadlines, the recommendations of the meeting of Cabinet held on 13 February 2024 will be circulated to Members in advance of the meeting of Council.

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

Item CB 24/22 referred from the Cabinet of 13 February 2024.

The Mayor proposed that Council Procedure Rule No 6.4 be suspended to allow the leading speakers from each Group to exceed the time limit on speeches when debating the budget proposals.   This was seconded by Cllr Boughton and supported by the Council.

In presenting the budget proposals, which had been considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Cabinet on 25 January and 13 February 2024 respectively, the Cabinet Member for Finance and Housing highlighted the areas of budget growth and pressure, outlined the support provided to vulnerable residents, businesses and community groups during the last financial year and welcomed the better than anticipated final Local Government Finance Settlement figure as well as better than anticipated business rates receipts.   She referenced the Council’s new Corporate Strategy and the priorities set within it and was delighted that through this Budget, funds could  be allocated in earmarked reserves towards delivery of these priorities.  The Cabinet Member for Finance and Housing was pleased to advise that the Borough Council had a balanced budget for 2024/25.

It was proposed by Councillor Tanner and seconded by Councillor Boughton that the recommendations at Minute CB 24/22 be adopted.  In accordance with Council Procedure Rule No 8.5 voting was recorded as follows:

Members voting for the motion:

Cllrs Banks, Bell, Bennison, Betts, Bishop, Boughton, Boxall, Bridge, Brown, Cannon, Clokey, Coffin, Dalton, Davis , Hammond, Harman, Hickmott, Hoskins, Hudson, Keers, King, Lark, Mallard, McDermott, Mehmet, Oakley, Palmer, Rhodes, Roud, Tanner,

Tatton, Taylor, Thornewell, Tunstall and Williams

Total:  35

Members voting against the motion:  0

Total: 0

Members abstaining:

Cllrs Athwal, Barton, Cope, Crisp, Hines, Hood, Oliver and Parry

Total: 8

(Total number of Members eligible to vote = 43)

RESOLVED:  That the recommendations at Minute CB 24/22 be approved.

Further to the meeting of the 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 2024/25.

Members are asked to note that at the time of writing this report, the final settlement has not been received.  All figures contained in the report are based on the provisional settlement.

Further to the reports to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee earlier in the cycle, the joint report of the Interim Chief Executive, Director of Finance and Transformation, the Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Housing 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 2024/25.

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 financial settlement received in December 2023, which was better than anticipated and saw an overall funding increase on 2023/24 of £416,000 (7.7%). 

The Director of Finance and Transformation advised that the final local government finance settlement figure was now confirmed as detailed in the supplementary report published in advance of the meeting.  Whilst, the final settlement was more than the provisional settlement by £175,850all councils were now required to prepare and submit a productivity plan by July 2024 setting out how they intended to ‘improve performance and reduce wasteful expenditure’.    It, therefore, seemed appropriate to transfer the additional funding to the earmarked ‘Transformation Reserve’ on the grounds of supporting the preparation and delivery of a productivity plan and one of the core values set out in the Corporate Strategy. 

As a result of increased NNDR receipts, the release of NNDR appeals provision and the better-than-expected settlement the Borough Council had a balanced budget for 2024/25 and had been able to set aside funds in earmarked reserves for key priorities identified within the Corporate Strategy.  However, the Settlement Funding Assessment (SFA) was for one year only and the Fair Funding Review deferred to a future date.  This further prolonged the uncertainty over local government funding and it was predicted that future funding was likely to be lower.  Members recognised that the current global economic conditions had also added to the uncertainty in the scale of the funding gap over the past twelve months.  As reported to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in January 2024, the latest projected funding gap was £1,705,000 over the medium term. This represented new savings that needed to be identified and delivered.

With regard to the Capital Plan, it was reported that the Borough Council was currently debt free.  It was noted that, based on current projections, from 2029/30 the Borough Council might need to borrow to fund expenditure (as detailed in 1.7.8).  Four schemes had been identified for fast track evaluation and these were food waste collections at communal properties, wetside changing room refurbishment and installation of air source heat pumps at Larkfield Leisure Centre and replacement boilers at the Angel Centre. 

The report then described the remaining procedure to be followed in setting the budget for 2024/25 and calculating the council tax.  For the purposes of preparing the budget papers and updating the MTFS a council tax increase of 3% for 2024/25 had been assumed followed by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22