Agenda item

To consider the latest iteration of the Council’s budget for 2024/25 and details of the proposed Capital Programme for 2023/24 to 2027/28 along with proposed bids for inclusion in the Capital Programme.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance, Estates and Property Services, Councillor Shires, presented a report on the Council’s Draft Revenue Budget for 2024-25, along with proposed budget savings and use of Reserves used to set a balanced budget for 2024/25.

Councillor Shires drew the committee’s attention to Table 2 Summary of Movements to Achieve Balanced Budget and that due to an additional £305,000 being received from the Government in its final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024/25, the additional use of reserves to balance the budget for 2024/25 would now be £111,000 and not £416,000.

Councillor Shires commented that in respect of the line in the table that said savings to be identified £250,000 she had mentioned this verbally at the last Overview and Scrutiny Committee and it had been added to the table for the last cabinet meeting.

Councillor Shires, in response to Councillor Holliday’s question, stated that she and the Director of Resources was confident enough that the savings could be realised to put them into budget.

The Director of Resources advised in response to a question from Councillor Dixon on whether full council could approve a budget with savings yet to be identified, that it was common practise for local authorities to do so.

Councillor Shires commented in respect of Councillor Dixon’s question about whether it was transparent for members of the public, that the budget was being prepared on what is best for the residents and in line with the council’s plans for the years ahead. The budget was specific in detailing the savings in each service area.

Councillor Shires added that it was not fair to the staff or the public to consider the array of choices that the council had to make further savings without some funnelling down of the proposals.

The Assistant Director Finance Assets Legal as the Council’s Monitoring Officer, responded to Councillor Dixon’s question by saying that no budget can be completely free of risk and there needs to be assumptions made with a degree of uncertainty. Councillor Shires had indicated that there were savings to be made but were being worked on but had not been identified publicly due to personal data that could not be shared in public. At the full council meeting, there would be the Director of Resources report as required by legislation and with all these factors it was a lawful basis to consider them.

Following on from this, the Assistant Director Finance Assets Legal advised that each councillor would have a fiduciary duty at the full council meeting to consider all the information before them but didn’t think there was an unlawfulness problem following all the information that had been provided at the meeting.

Councillor Shires advised that if the committee wanted to consider the £250,000 budget savings it would need to do that in an exempt information session of the committee as they contained confidential information.

Councillor Housden proposed the exclusion of the press and public to enable the committee to discuss those budget savings proposals that could include exempt information. The proposal was seconded by Councillor Vickers and agreed by the Committee who then went into a private session.

Following that discussion, the Committee then returned to the meeting being held in public.

Councillor Shires in response to a question from Councillor Cushing stated that some budget proposals would require budget consultation such as proposal Res 33 extension to the Meadow Car Park.

Councillor Shires commented in response to Councillor Cushing’s further question, that the council’s consultation process wasn’t just for the sake of consultation but were meaningful and for that item consultation would go through the planning process.

Councillor Shires clarified that the capital bids for 2024/25 had been to Cabinet as the current proposals but there was some uncertainty over some of the proposals, so it was not the final list. There would also need to be consideration given to any potential changes in project costs for any of the schemes over the next twelve months.

The Director of Resources advised that full council at its meeting on 21 February 2024 would have the opportunity to approve which of the new capital bids should go into the Council’s Capital Programme.

Councillor Shires in response to a question from Councillor Dixon asked what information the Committee wanted in a Medium-Term Financial Strategy. The Director of Resources advised that the information set out in the report met the principles set by The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).

Councillor Dixon stated that it would be worthwhile for the Committee to understand the guidance from CIPFA, and it agreed that the committee would undertake further work on looking at the CIPFA guidance, refining it and then advising on how that could be applied to the Council’s own strategy.

The Director of Resources advised, in response to Councillor Housden’s question on the changes in earmarked reserves for the Delivery plan shown on the table on page 25 of the agenda, that this was due to the external contracts involved with this coming to an end.

The Director of Resources advised, in response to Councillor Housden’s question, that the General Fund Reserve was £2.4m out of all the Reserves the Council held that totalled £14.5m.

The Director of Resources advised, in response to Councillor Hankin’s question, that there was a predicted increase of 1% each year in the Council tax base due to projected increase in new housing development.

Councillor Shires added that the council had done some work in getting homes, whether holiday lets or were long term empty properties, back into residential usage so that they were eligible for Council Tax.

The Democratic Services and Governance Officer commented that the role of local members in finding additional empty properties that could be brought back into use would be areas explored by the Homelessness Task and Finish group.

Recommendation – that (A) the Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered the list of proposed savings, the use of reserves and the setting of a savings target and made no additional recommendations to full Council on the combination to include in the Budget for 2024/25 for full Council to consider when it meets on 21 February 2024 to set a balanced budget for 2024/25, subject to noting that due to an additional £305,000 being received from the Government in its final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024/25, the additional use of reserves to balance the budget for 2024/25 would now be £111,000 and not £416,000,

(B) the Overview and Scrutiny Committee reviewed the proposed Capital Programme and new capital bids and made no changes to the list set out in the report, and

(C) further work be undertaken by the committee on what the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy could look like in the future.