Issue - meetings

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability presented the Budget 2025/26 and Medium-Term Financial Plan 2025-2035 report and said that despite the uncertainty of the future of the district council following the government’s Devolution White Paper, the council were still required to set a balanced budget.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability said that £1.46 million of officer delegated savings and £492,000 of Executive recommended savings had been identified with the majority of officer delegated savings coming from contracts and leaving vacancies open. He said that some savings proposed for 2024/25 budget year were still to be implemented in the 2025/26 budget.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability referred to the savings that had been rejected by the Executive such as reducing planning enforcement, reducing the grant to Citizens Advice and council communications. He said that although these were non-statutory services, these represented good value for money for residents.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability said that the cost of services were displayed in section 1.6 and there had been some gains from the extended producer responsibility scheme and a lower than expected staff pay award. However, these had been offset by a reduction in the income forecast for BEAM, rise in national insurance contributions and continuing liability for Charrington’s House. He said that to cover these costs, an increase of 2.98% in Council Tax had been proposed and it was important that all the savings proposals were realised.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability warned that there were risks ahead with external factors such as the cost of finance and business rates review which was outside the council’s control. He said another risk was the performance of BEAM and whether it could reach its income target, but the business plan was being reviewed with the new manager.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability thanked officers for their work in preparing the budget report and said the financial situation was challenging but the administration was able to present a balanced budget for 2025/26 and work continued at pace to reduce the gap in future years to ensure budget targets are met.

Councillor Brittain proposed that the recommendation in the report be supported. Councillor Swainston seconded the proposal.

Councillor Buckmaster said it was good to hear that BEAM was on its way to making its income targets and the leisure services were making money. He said that the administration had declared early on that they would like to replace the Executive system with an alternative but seemed that they did not mind using their Executive powers. He referred to the decisions on the two key revenue generators; the increase in the garden waste charge and parking tariffs. He said he was not saying that the Executive had not followed due process but felt that Full Council was the place to discuss the budget. He said that he could not support a budget that his own residents were against.  He asked why there were eight Executive Members which was the same as the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 357

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability presented the Budget 2025/26 and Medium Term Financial Plan 2025-2035 and said that despite the uncertainty of the future of the district council following the government’s Devolution White Paper, the council were still required to set a balanced budget.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability said that the report presented a balanced budget with a small surplus of £6k. He said the savings proposals had been presented to the Joint Meeting of Scrutiny Committees on 29 January 2025 and their comments were listed at Appendix F. Savings proposals to be taken forward and those that were rejected by the Executive were also included in the appendices.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability said that Council Tax would be increased by 2.98%, the maximum allowed without a referendum, as the Council had been left with little choice. He said that all planned savings needed to be realised in 2025/26 and £164k had been drawn down from reserves with no plan to add the money back. He said that Leadership Team would meet on a regular basis to review the savings plan and deal with any issues as soon as they arose.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability said that there was a £1.7million shortfall in the budget for 2026/27 and work would be undertaken to review this and consider new transformation options to drive efficiencies.

Councillor Brittain proposed that the recommendations in the report be supported. Councillor Hoskin seconded the proposal.

Councillor McAndrew referred to Appendix F that contained comments from the Joint Scrutiny meeting. He felt that it was lacking a lot of detail and some topics had not been recorded at all. He then referred to the annual waste contract and its year on year increase. He asked what the percentage increase was.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability said that it was an estimate based on contract inflation. The Head of Strategic Finance said it was a variable rate.

Councillor McAndrew referred again to the contract inflation figures.

The Head of Operations said that contract inflation was based on the CPI index, fuel index and labour costs. She said the council would not know what that figure was until May and so a £1 increase on the garden waste charge had been built into the MTFP and inflation was likely to be more.

Councillor McAndrew said that the contract increase was far below the current rate.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability said that there had been a large amount on inflation over 2020-21 reaching 10%. He said he would expect figures to be lower now and therefore the forecast is lower.

Councillor McAndrew wanted to know the breakdown of the figures and be given a rationale behind the increase.

The Head of Operations said that as an estimate, a £1 increase had been built into the MTFP and contract inflation figures would not be known until May.

Councillor Hoskin, the Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability, presented a breakdown of figures and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 328

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability introduced the report which set out the revised Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) and savings proposals to balance the 2025/26 budget. 

The Chair thanked the Executive Member for Financial Sustainability for his report and asked the Interim Head of Strategic Finance for his observations as he was new to the council.

The Interim Head of Strategic Finance said that he was impressed with the thorough level of detail which surrounded East Herts’ budget setting. He said that Leadership Team met regularly to monitor the budget, explore options and savings opportunities.

Councillor Nicholls queried the increase in service costs of £434,000 from last year for Communications, Strategy and Policy. She also sought clarification of why there was a drop in income retained from Business Rates.

The Interim Head of Strategic Finance said that he would need to obtain more detail to answer Councillor Nicholls’ query regarding the increase in the service cost. He said that the reset of the Business Rates system had resulted in the overall drop in this income.

Councillor Williamson referred to page 20 of the report and asked how disposing of Millstream assets would result in savings. He said that work was done by the previous administration to ensure that Millstream would provide the expected returns.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability said Millstream did provide an income for the council, but interest rates had changed, being higher for several years, and paying off debt saved more money (currently around 8%) than the profit generated. He said that if Millstream had no debt the case would be different.

Councillor Thomas also referred to page 20 of the report and asked for expansion on the Executive Approved Savings for 2024/25, namely the new approach to partnerships, the review of customer service receptions and the increase to the garden waste charges.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability said that he was unable to expand further on the new approach to partnerships and the customer services reception proposals as these were being reviewed by Leadership Team. He said that these money saving changes had consequences for jobs, and therefore currently needed to remain confidential. 

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability said that the proposed increase to the garden waste service would bring costs back into line, accommodating 20% inflation since the service was set up in 2021. He said that the 2025/26 increase was not an exact CPR rise and was not out of line with other local authorities in the area. He confirmed that the charge would increase each year thereafter.

Councillor Nicholls said that it was good to see that savings had been made by a senior management restructure and asked if these savings had been made by posts not being filled.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability said that it was not planned that posts which had been vacated would be refilled.

Councillor Clements said that he appreciated that the decisions regarding staff parking, not to reduce the grant given to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 312