Issue - meetings

Report to follow.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability presented the recommendations in the Budget 2022/23 and Medium Term Financial Plan 2022-25 report. Councillor Williamson ran through the key highlights of the report as follows:

·             Budgets have been set around an increasingly challenging background, with diminishing funding from government and many uncertainties about future funding, limited means by which the Council can now raise its own revenue, and more recently the position has been exacerbated by the higher costs and reduced income brought about by Covid.

·             The Financial Sustainability Strategy that focused on income from commercial property development was voided after the Treasury announcement in November 2020 which effectively stopped access to the borrowing that would have been required.

·             Within the 2022 planned savings, areas where the council could improve its income position were looked at, including £444k for increasing car parking revenue through a general uplift in tariffs, and introducing charges for evenings and Sundays.

·             For a period of several years this Council successively either frozen, reduced or introduced only limited increases. The Government have expected local authorities to raise their own funds so need to increase Council Tax by the maximum allowed (without a referendum), which was £5 per year on a Band D property.

·             Despite these plans, still not enough to close the gap in the budget. The Leadership Team were able to identify a further £238k of operational savings, making a total reduction in internal operational costs of £1m across this last year and the next. However, this still leaves a gap of £481k.

Councillor Williamson ran through the main savings proposals:

·             The Fees and Charges Policy seeks to reclaim the full cost of provision where a service is non-statutory. Residents Parking Zones is one service where the revenue received has dropped significantly behind the actual cost of provision and by raising the price to meet the cost removes £100k of subsidy to this service.

·             Sunday parking charges would be treated like the other days of the week. This would produce a further £70k of revenue.

·             The Community Grants budget would be reduced by 25%. However there was no longer a split between revenue and capital grant pots so more of the budget could be used to support revenue funding for projects. A further £8k will be removed from the budget and replaced from the East Herts Lottery Community Chest Fund.

·             The Citizens Advice Service would get a reduction in funding from the current £152k by £13k next year then £10k for each of the following two years. The Council would continue make very pro-active efforts to find external funding sources for the CAB, along with other ways we already support the CAB financially outside of our own funding.

Councillor Williamson said that the proposals in the report have identified sufficient savings to bridge the gap, enabling a balanced budget. The Medium Term Financial Plan showed that the Council’s total net expenditure for the next year is £11.526m.

Councillor Williamson said that whilst the proposals presented a balance budget,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 366

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability presented the proposed Budget 2022/22 and the Medium Term Financial Strategy 2022-25. He said that the plans were set around an increasing challenging background with less funding from government, limited means to increase revenue and higher costs and less income due to the pandemic. He said that the Council had carried out a comprehensive spending revenue in 2020 which brought forward a significant level of savings. The Council Transformation Programme was underway but it was a medium to long term project and results would be noticed in 2023.

Councillor Williamson said that the Executive endorsed working assumptions in September 2021 including a £5 increase on Council Tax and a review of the Fees and Charges Policy which proposed an average increase of 5% and where a discretionary service was provided, the cost would be paid in full by the service users. He said that the budget gap still needed to be filled and further savings proposals were presented at Appendix B. The Medium Term Financial Plan and the Capital Programme appendices had been updated in relation to the Hertford Theatre funding. He thanked the Audit and Governance Committee for their comments which were included at Appendix H.

Councillor Haysey said difficult decisions had to be made but believed the proposed budget was the best way forward.

Councillor Williamson proposed, and Councillor Buckmaster seconded a motion supporting the recommendations in the report. On being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – (A) That the comments from Audit and Governance Committee, as shown at Appendix H be considered, and endorse the recommended actions shown;

(B)      To recommend to Council:

                        I.            that the East Herts share of the Council Tax for a Band D property in 2022/23 be set at £184.09, an increase of £5, the maximum permitted within the Council Tax Referendum principles;

                      II.            The Budget 2022/23 and the Medium Term Financial Plan 2022 – 2027 is approved;

                    III.            The savings plans summarised in Appendix B are approved for implementation and that Council require that compensating savings, delivered to the same timescales, have to be put in place and reported to the next Council meeting should the Executive decide that any savings proposals should not proceed, or are reduced by 10% or more

                   IV.            The capital programme set out in Appendix C is approved; and

                     V.            The schedule of charges for 2021/22 set out in Appendix G, with an average increase of 5%, is approved;

(C)  That the results of the consultation on how the public value services that are provided by the council be noted;

(D)  That the Equalities Impact Assessment at Appendix F be noted; and

(E)   That the savings due to be delivered from the Transforming East Herts Programme be noted that a full business case and benefits realisation plan will be presented to Executive in June 2022 be noted.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability introduced the report which set out proposals on the Budget 2022/23, the Medium Term Financial Plan 2022/23 – 2026/27, the 2022/23 – 2026/27 Capital Programme and the 2022/23 Schedule of Charges. He referred to plans being set around an increasing challenging background of diminishing funding from Government and uncertainties regarding future funding. The limited means of the Council raising its own revenue, and higher costs due to Covid.  However, he explained that planning ahead had continued with the Council’s 2020 comprehensive spending review giving significant levels of savings for this year, and with the transformation programme underway further savings were expected from 2023.  He confirmed that for the budget to be prepared it was based on working assumptions, and that the Council Tax increase of £5.00 per year on a Band D property is the maximum that the Council can apply without a referendum. He explained that despite measures there will remain a budget gap which will need to be filled, and drew the committee members’ attention to Appendix B within the report which set out further savings proposals in addition to those agreed last year.

The Chairman remarked on the quality of the reports and thanked Officers for their hard work.

The Chairman asked the Head of Strategic Finance and Property for clarity on paragraph 2.3 of the report, regarding the National Pay Award. The Head of Strategic Finance and Property explained that the pay award for the financial year had not yet been agreed. The Employers side had made a final offer of 1.75%, and understood that the Unions were balloting for industrial action. Following guidance of the Executive, a pay award provision of 3% has been made for next year, which with inflation currently at 5% would be a less than inflation pay award. The Chairman asked that if the pay award was less than 3% would the funds go into reserves.  The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that this would become an under spend, and that 3% seemed sensible based on where inflation was currently going. 

The Chairman referred to page 34 of the report regarding the possible change of location for the Council and asked if this would be facilitated by capital borrowing. The Head of Strategic Finance and Property explained that funding would come from reserves and that this was approved in principal but not committed. The Council building will be surveyed and the findings compared to the costs against the offer to co-locate at County Hall.  He reiterated that no decision had yet been made, and that it will be included as part of the Transformation Programme. 

Councillor Curtis referred to the savings proposals relating to Resident Parking Zones (RPZ) which had attracted attention from members of the public. Whilst supporting the principal that the scheme is cost neutral to the Council, he questioned if residents could be offered a discount by providing their vehicle registration details and not opting for hard copy permits.

Councillor  ...  view the full minutes text for item 299