Issue - meetings

Decision

RESOLVED

1. To consider the proposed balanced budget including movement in reserves and recommended approval to full Council.

2. To approve the creation of an £0.75m Ear Marked Reserve to mitigate the Revenue costs of Local Government Reorganisation.

3. To approve the use of the Communities reserve to fund a revenue budget of £4,000 per Member to allow the award of small local grants.

4. That an alternative option for balancing the budget should be agreed to replace costs or savings not taken forward if there are any.

5. To agree that any additional funding announced as part of the final Local Government Settlement announcement be transferred to reserves.

6. To decide which proposed new capital bids should be recommended to full Council for inclusion in the Capital Programme.

Reason for the decision:

To enable the Council to set a balanced budget.

Cllr L Shires, Portfolio Holder for Finance, Estates & Property Services, introduced this item. She began by thanking her Cabinet colleagues and officers for their support and engagement throughout the budget setting process to ensure that a balanced budget was achieved. She highlighted the challenges that residents had faced in the last two years, especially the increase in homelessness and praised officers for their work in providing temporary accommodation units during a period of extreme financial pressure.

She said that the report had been to Overview and Scrutiny Committee and there had been a request for more background information to be included and this would be added to the updated report that would be going to the next meeting of the Committee.

Cllr Shires highlighted recommendation 3, which related to the use of the Communities reserve to fund a revenue budget of £4k per member to allow the award of small local grants. She explained that the Sustainable Communities Fund had been paused in 2024/2025 and she was pleased to say that it was now being released as a local members fund. It was proposed that a cross-party working group was established to agree purpose and governance regarding the awarding of grants. Then, a four person panel comprised of two members, a legal officer and a finance officer would meet monthly to oversee the allocation of the awards.

Cllr Shires then talked through the other recommendations, which included the establishment of a reserve to deliver Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) as there was no additional funding from government for this.

Officers were now working continuously to ensure that the budget was managed carefully throughout the year, thus ensuring that savings were built into the way service areas worked rather than presented at year end.

Cllr Shires the explained that following the Local Government Financial Settlement (LGFS) in December 2025, the Council received a zero percent increase in core spending power. The impact on shire districts was considerable as the Government’s focus shifted towards metropolitan boroughs. Consequently, a significant number of district councils, including NNDC, were reliant on 95% funding floor protection to avoid real-terms and in some cases, cash terms reductions.

Cllr Shires then highlighted additional funding pressures that the Council was facing including ongoing temporary housing costs and the introduction of food waste collection. The Government had miscalculated how much this would cost and it was likely that this would have a considerable impact on future budgets if the funding gap was not addressed.

Referring to the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), she highlighted the small share of council tax allocated to NNDC – which had previously been approximately 8% of the total collected and then last year this had fallen to 7.4%. She warned that this share may change again this year but suggested that members may wish to highlight the 7.4% share when discussing council tax rates with their town and parish councils. 

The Chair said it was important to note that NNDC’s overall share of council tax was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10