Issue - meetings

Reserved for Council

Councillor R C Evans, Cabinet Member: Council Finance & Governance, presented a series of reports of the Chief Executive and the Chief Financial Officer. The reports, detailed the Revenue Budget, medium term Capital Strategy and Programme, the Investment and Treasury Management Strategies and Prudential Indicators. In October 2020, the Council’s Cabinet agreed a refreshed Council Plan to deliver the organisation’s vision to “Protect, Care and Invest to Create a Better Borough”.

On 5 March 2020 the Council approved a one year service and financial planning strategy for the current financial year.  The strategy was set after more than 10 years of severe financial constraint from the Governments austerity programme. During this 10 year period, the Council had made ongoing savings of £126.4m in order to set a balanced budget, at a time where there was a growing demand for services.

The Council agreed a one year budget strategy for 2020/21 as the Government had proposed to make major changes to the local government finance system, however, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this has been postponed and the spending review announced on 25 November 2020 covered a period of one year.

In view of this significant uncertainty over the future of local government finance and what resources may be available to the Council beyond the following year, and the uncertainties caused by Covid-19, a one year service and financial planning strategy for 2021/22 is again proposed. However, because capital projects needed to be planned over a longer time horizon new capital investment proposals were included for 2021/22 and the following two years.

The report identified key strategies including:-

·         Increasing Council Tax for 2021/22 by 1.99% and that the Government’s additional 3% “Adult Social Care precept” be applied.  This gave a total increase of 4.99%, raising £3.64m in total. 

·         Doubling the provision of the Council Tax Reduction Hardship Assistance Scheme to help residents who need support during this time.

·         The Adult Social Care precept would raise £2.188m which would be fully invested into Adult Social Care Services.

·         Extra investment of £1m spread over to 2021/22 and 2022/23 to support crime an anti-social behaviour initiatives.

·         A packet of budget savings, including additional income generated by the Council’s commercial activities, totalling £5.9m in 2021/22, rising to £7.139m in 2022/23.

·         Prudent use of £0.173m of available revenue balances to ensure a balanced budget for 2021/22.

·         A programme of capital investments totalling more than £228.532m as set out in the Capital Strategy and Capital Programme reports which included:-

·         £65.3m investment into NuPlace, the Council’s wholly owned housing company.

·         £40.7m for highways and transport schemes, including improvements to the A442 and funding for repair of potholes, footways and drainage schemes.

·         £25.7m for education capital projects, including an expansion project for secondary school places in the Borough.

·         £9.95m into the Stronger Communities Programme, focused on bringing brownfield sites back into use, and providing a stimulus for the delivery of the Station Quarter.

·         £9.65m investment into the Council’s Property Investment portfolio, which will attract new jobs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50