Agenda item

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 said the increase in the garden waste charge had been a catch up exercise as inflation and rising costs had not been applied by the previous administration.

Councillor McAndrew said that the Joint Scrutiny Committee was told that the increase was to cover the cost of the service. In 2021, the cost of the service was £821k and this paper was saying £1.7million.

Councillor Hoskin said the catch up on cost now meant the service cost £59.81 to residents but they had capped it at £59. He said this charge would recover the cost of the service for those who opt in.

Councillor Jacobs referred to the summary from the Joint Scrutiny Committee and felt it did not provide a comprehensive view of what was discussed at the meeting. He requested that this was amended before being presented to Full Council.

Councillor McAndrew again referred to the garden waste charge. He said that the additional planned 3,328 houses all paying £59 a year would equate to a £201,392 income that he did not believe had been accounted for.

The Executive Member for Financial Sustainability said that the extra houses would cause extra costs.

Councillor Hopewell said that just because houses were being built did not mean that they would all opt in to the garden waste charge.

Councillor Hoskin said that the challenge was to recover costs and any extra volume in customers would still recover its costs and would not make additional money.

Councillor Jacobs referred to page 31 and the proposed changes to charges. He asked if the pre application advice fee was a typo as it had decreased from £350 to £218.

Councillor Deering said he agreed with the comments from Councillor Jacobs about the comments from the Joint Scrutiny Committee. He said he had a number of questions about the garden waste charge and would raise it at Full Council.

The motion to support the recommendations having been proposed and seconded was put to the meeting and upon a vote being taken, was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – To recommend to Council to approve the Capital Strategy, Minimum Revenue Provision Statement and the Treasury Management Strategy 2025/26 including the Prudential Indicators contained within the reports.