Agenda, decisions and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

There were  no declarations of interest at this point in the meeting.

The Executive Councillor for Economic Development, Environment and Planning provided an update in relation to the Western Growth Corridor planning application which was due to be determined shortly by the City of Lincoln Council.  He reported that Highways had substantial objections to the Scheme, and in consultation with the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT, had determined that it should be referred to the Secretary for State for decision as it was not believed that the objections could be overcome by the scheme in its current form.  The Executive Councillor advised that he had registered to speak as an objector and had written to the Secretary of State requesting that the application was called-in.

The Chief Executive provided an update on Covid-19, and the recent media reporting on the position around hospital and community health trusts.  The Executive were advised that all three health Trusts in Lincolnshire were under significant pressure.  ULHT had announced it was in OPEL 4 in terms of critical emergency.  The challenge related more to business continuity and the numbers of staff off sick either with Covid-19 or self-isolating than the number of patients being admitted.  There had been a briefing the previous day from all of the hospital trusts and all services were working under business continuity arrangements, and there were some minor outpatient services that had been affected, but all services were running.

From an LCC perspective, the staff situation was being monitored closely, and there had not been a need to invoke any business continuity plans.

RESOLVED

          That the minutes of the meeting of the Executive held on 7 December 2021 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Leader.

(To receive a report from the Executive Director – Resources which seeks approval for the proposals on the Council’s Budget for 2022/23, as set out in the report for internal and external consultation)

That the budget proposals as described in the report be approved as the preferred option for the purposes of further consultation, namely:

1.    The key budget setting assumptions set out in Appendix A of the report.

2.    A 3% Adult Social Care (ASC) precept in 2022/23, which is the amount of ASC precept allowed for 2021/22 but which this Council deferred.

3.    The budget savings and cost pressures, covering the years 2022/23 to 2025/26 as set out in Appendix B to the report.

4.    The draft capital programme 2022/23 onwards as set out in Appendix C to the report.

5.    The allocation of the remaining Development Fund Initiatives earmarked reserve as set out in paragraph 1.47 of the report.

A report on the Council’s Budget for 2022/23 was presented by Andrew Crookham, Executive Director – Resources, and Michelle Grady, Assistant Director – Finance.  The proposals, which would be subject to consultation, had been based on the provisional local government settlement for 2022/23 which had been issued on 16 December 2021.  The announcement of the final settlement was expected in February 2022, and this was anticipated to be in line with the provisional settlement.

Further budgetary information was awaited from the Lincolnshire district Councils on likely council tax and business rate income for 2022/23.  A number of new cost pressures had emerged in addition to the pressures identified for 2022/23 in the previous year’s budget process, and some areas, cost pressures previously identified had been reduced.

The key elements of the provisional local government finance settlement had been a new tranche of Social Care Support grant was confirmed at £9.3m; confirmation of LCC’s share of new funding to deal with local authority pressures (£7.7m) called “Services Grant”, this would be for one year only; the council tax referendum limit would be 2% for general council tax increases, and social care authorities could raise up to 1% for a further Adult Social Care precept.  Social care authorities were also able to raise an Adult Social Care precept in 2022/23 for any element of the 3% precept for 2021/22 which was deferred to 2022/23.  It was estimated that a Council Tax increase of 3% would generate additional income of £9.6m based on the tax base for the current year.

It was proposed that the Council Tax would be increased by the 3% Adult Social Care (ASC) precept which was deferred from 2021/22.  At this point, a general council tax increase and a further ASC precept were not proposed.

The Capital Programme was included at Appendix C to the report, and it was noted that due to uncertainty of future funding, no new projects had been added to the capital programme in this budget process.  The net programme for 2022/23 was £87.734m, after grants and contributions had been taken into account.

During discussion, the following points were made by the Executive:

·       It was proposed to embed funding for flooding issues in the budget for the coming two years to enable work to continue using the remaining Development Fund Initiatives earmarked reserves. 

·       Details on the final council tax estimates from the district council were expected at the end of January 2022.

·       Work was underway to try and resolve the issue of the £12m reduction in the Highways Maintenance grant.  The Leader of the Council and members of the Executive had met with MP’s and the Transport Minister on this issue following a debate at the full Council meeting on 10 December 2021.  It was not yet clear whether the campaign to have the funding reinstated had been successful. 

·       Clarification was sought in relation to the purpose of some of the earmarked reserves, it was noted that these reserves related to funding received for specific  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.