Agenda item

The Chairman reminded Members that a revised Appendix C – Fees and Charges had been published in the supplementary agenda and these were the figures that needed to be included in the recommendations.

 

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability presented the Budget 2023/24 and the Medium Term Financial Plan 2023/24 – 2027/28. He said that he was proud of the administration’s record on producing budgets which showed sound financial management and protected frontline services which had been achieved over the last few years despite adverse circumstances such as the pandemic, the economic impact from the war in Ukraine and the employers pay offer and the higher than expected inflationary contract increase of £840k. He said that the budget had been prepared against an increasingly challenging background and uncertainties over future funding.

 

Councillor Williamson said one way for a council to increase revenue was council tax. Central government had made it clear that local authorities must do all that was necessary to raise funds and the Chancellor announced in the Autumn Statement in 2022 that local authorities would have more flexibility to increase council tax; the higher of £5 or 3% rounded. He said that 3% rounded was the higher for East Herts so council tax would be increased by £5.50 or 11p a week. He said that increasing council tax was never an easy decision but the increase would bring in an extra £350,000 each year for the delivery of services.

 

Councillor Williamson said that the Council Tax increase and the Fees and Charges policy was not enough to close the budget gap. He reported that sufficient operational savings had been found in the Transformation Programme without any impact on frontline services. However, he said that substantial savings of £6.7 million would need to be found in future years of the MTFP and this was after the temporary use of reserves to remove some of the pressure. The Leadership Team had embarked on a Reconciling Resources and Performance exercise to ensure the council’s resources were aligned with its corporate priorities.

 

Councillor Williamson referred to the council’s capital programme. He said the total capital investment across the district would reach £18.4 million of which the council’s major projects contribute £14.9 million. He said the council now had to allow for interest payments and minimum revenue provision of capital borrowing in the MTFP. He said that by pausing some of the lower priority capital projects and moved them into approved but not committed category, the council did not need to allow for financing of these items in the MTFP.

 

Councillor Williamson said the council had been successful in receiving £2.2 million in funding through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to invest into the district over the next two years.

 

Councillor Williamson thanked the Leadership Team and Officers across the council for having robust and solid plans moving forward and said that the administration had acted prudently with finances and was in a much better place that other authorities across the country.

 

Councillor Williamson proposed the recommendations in the report and were seconded by Councillor Buckmaster who reserved his right to speak.

 

Councillor Goldspink said that the Liberal Democrat group knew that council finances were stretched but said that there were several ways of reducing costs and one was to pause any non-essential spends. She said the Liberal Democrats believed that it was unwise to proceed with proposals for the Old River Lane development when there were serious flaws in the plans and did not have the support of residents in Bishop’s Stortford. She felt it was foolish to commit the council and taxpayers to 30 years of repayments on a loan for a scheme that no one wanted. She suggested that the scheme be paused for a short while to do a thorough and full consultation with residents and save revenue expenditure.

 

Therefore, Councillor Goldspink proposed an amendment to the budget as follows:

 

“This Council decides to pause the proposed capital expenditure on the Development of the Old River Lane site in Bishop’s Stortford, by moving this item to the “Approved but not yet Committed”category. This would reduce the Council’s revenue expenditure for the Medium Term Financial Plan period and would allow time for full consultation with residents and all interested parties. It would not mean cancelling the project.

That the budget be amended as follows:

·       Appendix A Medium Term Financial Plan being replaced with the attached new Appendix A with amended figures shown highlighted in yellow; and

·       Appendix B Capital Programme being replaced with the attached new Appendix B with amended figures shown highlighted in yellow.”

The amendment was seconded by Councillor Wilson.

 

Councillor Wilson said that the meeting had heard earlier from Councillor Buckmaster about the success of Grange Paddocks. He said that could have been predicted as the residents of Bishop’s Stortford were in support of the proposal before it happened. He said the strength of feeling in Bishop’s Stortford over the Old River Lane development has been bigger than any other issue. He said the council needed to pause the development and revisit with the full co-operation of the residents before going ahead.

 

Councillor Redfern said she wholeheartedly supported the amendment. She said that the residents of Bishop’s Stortford did not feel that they had been consulted, not been listened too and that the development has been imposed on them.

 

Councillor Williamson said that the budget process had begun last September and the proposals had been presented to the Audit and Governance Committee twice and to the Executive three times. He said he could not see any difference to the figures for 2023/24 in what was proposed in the amendment.

 

A recorded vote was held on the amendment proposed by Councillor Goldspink. The result was as follows:

 

FOR

 

Councillors Beckett, Bell, Brady, Crystall, Dumont. Goldspink, Redfern, Wilson

 

AGAINST

 

Councillors Alder, Bolton, E Buckmaster, R Buckmaster, Crofton, Cutting, Deering, Drake, Fernando, Goodeve, Haysey, Jones, Kaye, Kemp, Newton, Page, Pope, Ranger, Reed, Ruffles, Rutland-Barsby, Snowdon, Stowe, Symonds, Ward-Booth, Williamson, Wyllie

 

ABSTAIN

 

Councillor Devonshire

 

For: 8
Against: 27
Abstain: 1

 

The motion to amend the recommendation was LOST.

 

The debate returned to the original recommendations in the report.

 

Councillor Redfern referred to page 110 of the report which referred to a member decision about increased access to external grants to replace EHC’s funds through a ‘payments per results’ agreement with CVS. She asked if the council was going to decide on that or make a decision on the whole budget.

 

Councillor Williamson said that the item Councillor Redfern was referring to formed part of the whole budget package that had been presented. 

 

Councillor Deering said he thought this was an excellent budget and praised the Executive Member for Financial Sustainability for his work.

 

Councillor Crofton said that the budget had been scrutinised by the Audit and Governance Committee. He said it was galling to hear the opposition members challenge the budget proposals when they had not been present at any of the Audit and Governance Committees when the budget was being debated. He said that Councillor Bell had only attended three meetings and no substitute was ever offered in her place.

 

Councillor Bell clarified that she had only missed one meeting due to having Covid.

 

Councillor E Buckmaster said that Councillor Williamson had presented the budget well and said the administration had a lot to be proud of. He said that the council provided many services for just 9% of the share of Council Tax collected and reminded people what the authority delivered such as collecting council tax, parks, leisure, theatre, environmental health, planning, parking, licensing, housing, community engagement, business support and much more.

 

 

The motion to support the recommendations having been proposed and seconded was put to a recorded vote and the result was as follows:

 

FOR

 

Councillors Alder, Bolton, E Buckmaster, R Buckmaster, Crofton, Cutting, Deering, Drake, Fernando, Goodeve, Haysey, Jones, Kaye, Kemp, Newton, Page, Pope, Ranger, Reed, Ruffles, Rutland-Barsby, Snowdon, Stowe, Symonds, Ward-Booth, Williamson, Wyllie

 

AGAINST

 

Councillors Beckett, Bell, Dumont, Goldspink, Wilson

 

ABSTAIN

 

Councillors Brady, Crystall, Devonshire, Redfern

 

For: 27

Against: 5

Abstained: 4

 

RESOLVED – That (A) To approve the budget and Medium Term Financial Plan at Appendix A be approved with a Council Tax increase of 2.99%, which will result in a Band D Equivalent Council Tax annual increase of £5.50;

(B)       the Capital Programme at Appendix B be approved;

(C)        the Fees and Charges at Appendix C of the supplementary agenda be approved noting that charges have been calculated on a full cost recovery basis in line with the Fees and Charges Policy.

(D)      the level of budget reductions required to balance the budget in the medium term is beyond further efficiency measures alone and that Leadership Team are preparing a Reconciling Policy, Performance and Resources exercise that the new Council, elected in May 2023, will need to undertake alongside the development of the new Corporate Plan, to balance the budget over the medium term be noted.