Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors C J Davie, R G Davies and Mrs W Bowkett.

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

There were no announcements by the Leader, Executive Councillors or Executive Directors.

RESOLVED

          That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 4 January 2023 be agreed and signed by the Chairman.

(To receive a report from the Executive Director – Resources, which invites the Executive to make proposals to the full County Council on the Council’s budget and council tax in light of the provisional local government settlement and consultation comments on its initial proposals)

1.    That the effect of the funding available and revenue expenditure position as set out in paragraphs 1.33 – 1.34 and Table B of the report, supported by additional information in Appendix A and the document entitled “Update to the Council Budget 2023/24 report to the Executive 07 February 2023” (“the Update”) be noted.

2.    That the Equality Impact Analysis at Appendix B and the consultation and engagement comments as shown in Appendix F as supplemented prior to the meeting be noted.

3.    Subject to recommendations 4 and 5 below, that the below be recommended to Full Council:

a)    The revenue budget for 2023/24 proposed in Table B of the report as amended in Table E of “the Update”;

b)    The capital programme for 2023/24 proposed in Table C and Appendix C of the report;

c)    The levels of council tax proposed in Table D and shown in Appendix D of the report including the increasing of council tax in 2023/24 by 4.99% inclusive of 2% for Adult Social Care;

d)    The prudential indicators for 2023/24 shown in Appendix E of the report;

e)    The Medium Term Financial Strategy attached at Appendix G to the report;

f)      The Capital Strategy 2023/24 attached at Appendix H to the report.

4.    That the Leader of the Council be requested to review and amend the Executive’s budget recommendations to the County Council, as appropriate, in respect of; the final Local Government Finance Settlement; the financial impact of the completion of the deep dive into the education transport pressure, and; the receipt of local taxation data from the District Councils if received between the Executive meeting and the County Council on 17 February 2023.

5.    That the Leader of the Council be requested to review and amend the prudential indicators and the figures within the Medium Term Financial Strategy to be recommended to the County Council as appropriate, to ensure consistency with final budget recommendations made to the County Council meeting on 17 February 2023.

Consideration was given to a report from the Executive Director – Resources which asked Executive to propose to full Council the Council’s budget and council tax in light of the provisional local government settlement and consultation comments on its initial proposals.  The Executive was also asked to consider prudential targets in relation to capital financing and other treasury management matters.

The Executive Director – Resources introduced the report and reiterated some of the key messages following the report presented to the Executive in January 2023, including around the uncertainty for the future.  It was noted that the Council had been given a one year settlement for 2023-24, with an indicative position for 2024-25, with 2025-26 onwards looking more uncertain in terms of a future funding package due to a number of reasons including the fair funding reforms campaign. 

The Assistant Director – Finance guided the Executive through a further update to the Council Budget 2023/24, which had been circulated prior to the meeting, which set out a revised budget position following confirmation from the district councils of the Council Tax bases; Council Tax Collection Fund; Business Rates Tax Base; Business Rates Collection Fund; and changes to the Cost Base following the deep dive to quantify the level of financial risk within the delivery model and cost of the education transport service and implications of the latest information on the Budget Position.

An updated Appendix F to the report was also circulated prior to the meeting, which included budget consultation feedback from scrutiny committees; members of the public and notes from the consultation meeting with external stakeholders.

The report presented to the Executive in January set out three options for Council Tax increase for consultation, and the option proposed was 4.99% which included the 2% Adult Social Care precept and would generate an approximate additional £7million of funding compared to the increase of 2.99%.  in response to consultation feedback, it is proposed to allocate an additional £7m spend on highways, including pedestrian crossings and addressing Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO’s).  The original report highlighted the evolving cost pressures around education transport and further detail was provided in paragraph 1.18 of the update. The update also reported that the council tax collection fund had made a small surplus, whilst the council tax base had been smaller than budgeted.  A small deficit in the Business Rates fund had been planned for, but a small surplus was being reported.  Table E in the update showed that the Council would need to draw down £9.4m from the earmarked reserved to balance the budget.  There were no changes proposed to the Capital Programme.  The final Settlement had been published late the previous evening, and officers were working through the data to check if there were any changes to the grant allocations.

The Vice Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board was in attendance to present the comments of the Board following its consideration of the proposals at its meeting on 26 January 2023.  It was noted  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.