Agenda and draft minutes

The appointment for the meeting to be drawn from the Chair of the Strategic Scrutiny of Customer Focus Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Parkhouse was appointed Chair of the meeting.

To approve and sign the minutes of the Combined Strategic Scrutiny and Customer Focus Scrutiny Committee held on 7 February 2024.

The minutes of the meeting of the Combined Strategic Scrutiny and Customer Focus Scrutiny Committee held on 18 June 2024 were taken as read, approved and signed by the Chair as correct.

Councillors are reminded of the need to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests that relate to business on the agenda and which have not already been included in the register of interests, before any discussion takes place on the item. Unless the interest is sensitive, you must also disclose the nature of the interest. In accordance with the Council's Code of Conduct, you must then leave the room and must not participate in any further discussion of the item. Councillors requiring clarification should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer prior to the day of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members.

To receive the report of the Strategic Director for Corporate Resources.

The Strategic Director for Corporate Resources presented his report on the General Fund HRA Estimates 2025/26 making the following points:

·         this report had been based on provisional figures but the final announcement had been received on 3 February therefore could be confirmed;

·         the General Fund’s Core Spending Power which Government used to assess levels of Revenue Support Grant, other grants, baseline Business Rates and Council Tax - provisional figures were the same as last year;

·         National Insurance compensation was expected at £138,000, but the final figure was £184,000.  However, costs were £750,000 higher for the coming year;

·         core spending power assumed that council tax was raised by 2.99% being the maximum the Council can increase by; and

·         there was a new manufacturers tax on packaging which in the first year Government would guarantee bringing £1.4million to the Council which would address the NI increase.

The Strategic Director responded to questions from Members in the following terms:

• the predicted shortfall as a result of NI was offset by EPR;
• the HRA element was additional but had a neutral impact on the general fund;
• the General Fund had a £2.4 million reduction instead of £3.5 million due to retaining the business rates pool, assumed at £900,000 income;
• £1.4million from new packaging tax was an estimate based on waste collection and disposal rates;
• Government would calculate and collect the new packaging tax and distribute in arrears in October and again six months later; and
• calculations would be built into the budget in future based on knowledge as with other fees and charges.

The Strategic Director continued to present his report making the following points:

• the pay bill stood at £30million;
• insurance had risen;
• it was intended to keep general inflation to zero with contracts to RPI or RPI+;
• utilities inflation was zero representing the best estimate of the Council’s broker;
• short-term borrowing was sometimes required therefore assumptions were made taking this into account;
• the New Homes Bonus was included in core spending power; and
• the Revised MTFP reflected the reset which had been due in 2018 and it was hoped that there would be transitional arrangements in place.

The Strategic Director responded to questions from Members in the following terms:

• it was understood that Government would undertake a comprehensive spending review in autumn this year;
• there was a national financial challenge within local government;
• a Member Briefing had been given detailing options to achieve a balanced budget with some being straightforward and others more challenging;
• the consultation results had been received;
• there was a requirement to consult and to consider the results but that a balanced budget must be delivered;
• the best forum for consideration of the budget consultation would be at the budget full council;
• a percentage decrease across services was not requested as it had been following service reviews in 2022, rather what could be safely be reduced was presented;
• the budget consultation had taken place later in the year due to the restructure and to allow the Residents  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

To receive the report of the Strategic Director for Corporate Resources.

The Strategic Director for Corporate Resources presented his report on Capital Strategy 2025/26 stating that this set out the process for making capital decision and there had been no changes since the previous year.

There were no questions from Members.

To receive the report of the Strategic Director for Corporate Resources.

The Strategic Director for Corporate Resources presented his report on the Treasury Management Strategy Report making the following points:

• There had been two changes since the last report, namely, the ESG Policy was cross-referenced and changes to Treasury Management practices;
• There were no changes to limits;
• It was unlikely that the Council would go outside ESG, only if a significant event occurred; and
• Reducing cash reserves was the preferred option to borrowing.

The Strategic Director Corporate Resources responded to questions from Members’ making the following points:

• money had been withdrawn from Barclays;
• any borrowing would be from other Local Authorities in the first instance;
• £15 million would be kept available with easy access as there was no overdraft facility;
• the Council would lend for short fixed periods to other Local Authorities;
• money market funds would be utilised for instant access;
• details of where funds are could be found on page 64 of the agenda pack;
• the MTFP took into account future borrowing and was modelled and estimated across the four year period;
• Capital financing increased by an amount equal to the debt of assets;
• there were differences when the accounts were closed but different methods were used to take this into account; and
• there would be a new Asset Management Strategy in the next year.

To receive the report of the Strategic Director for Corporate Resources.

The Strategic Director for Corporate Resources presented his report on The Prudential Code stating that this was a statutory report and there were three important strands:

·         Capital Financing Requirement;

·         Operational Boundary; and

·         Authorised Limit.

The Strategic Director gave detail as below.

Capital Financing Requirement:

·         there was much over which Members had no choice;

·         most importantly the General Fund was included;

·         HRA was included, but did not make a repayment of debt charge as it charged depreciation;

·         Statutory payment of debt was included in the General Fund; and

·         the debt burden for HRA’s across the Country was now shared which meant going from zero to £57million but resulted in a £1.5million contribution to the Council’s HRA.

Operational Boundary was the maximum the s151 Officer could borrow for capital purposes.

Authorised Limit was the Operational Boundary plus a small amount to allow for day-to-day cash flow.  There were four choices in how to set the minimum revenue provision.  A model of matching depreciation of asset for repayment of debt was used.

There were no questions from Members.