Agenda item

The Executive Member for Finance and Support Services submitted a report which set out proposals in respect of:

·                        the 2016/17 revenue budget forecast outturn;

·                        the 2017/18 revenue budget;

·                        the 2017/18 Schedule of Charges;

·                        the 2016/17 (revised) to 2020/21 Capital Programme;

·                        the Medium Term Financial Plan 2017/18 – 2020/21; and

·                        the Council’s Reserves.

He informed the Executive that the joint meeting of Scrutiny Committees, at its meeting held on 17 January 2017, had supported the budget proposals, which included a council tax rise of 2%.

In response to a question, the Head of Strategic Finance and Property assured Members that although the salaries budget appeared overspent, this had been caused by planned fixed term working on specific projects that had been funded from reserves.  Officers continued to monitor salaries budgets carefully.

The Leader referred to the impending departure of the Head of Strategic Finance and Property and thanked him for service.

The Executive supported the proposals now detailed.

RECOMMENDED – that (A) the comments of the joint meeting of Scrutiny Committees be received;

(B)      the forecast 2016/17 underspend transfer to the Transformation Reserve, as now detailed at paragraph 4.11 of the report submitted, be approved;

(C)      the 2017/18 Revenue Budget, including:

·                        Budget Savings and Growth, set out in Section 6, paragraph 6.2 of the report submitted;

·                        Contingency Budget, set out in Section 8, paragraph 8.3 of the report submitted;

·                        use of Earmarked Reserves, set out in Section 9 of the report submitted;

·                        consideration of the advice from the Section 151 Officer on the level of reserves and the robustness of the forecasts in setting the budget as required by Section 25 of the Local Government Act 2003 (section 15);

be approved;

(D)      the proposed 2017/18 Schedule of Charges, as detailed at section 7 of the report submitted, be approved;

(E)      the East Herts Council element of the Council Tax Demand, as detailed in paragraph 11.4 of the report submitted, be approved;

(F)       the Capital Programme for the period 2015/16 (Revised) to 2019/20, the funding of the programme and the consequential revenue budget implications as set out in section 12 of the report submitted, be approved;

(G)      the Medium Term Financial Plan covering 2016/17 (Revised) to 2020/21 as set out in section 13 of the report submitted, be approved; and

(H)      the Reserves Policy as set out in Section 14 of the report submitted, be approved.