Issue - decisions

Budget Report

06/02/2019 - Budget Report

Not for call-in

 

(1)          Cabinet recommended that Council :-

 

Revenue and capital – GF

 

(a)          Approve the revenue estimates for 2019-20 as shown in the GF BSR Section 5 at Appendix 1 to this report.

 

(b)          Approve the precautionary items for the GF, GF BSR Appendix B, Appendix 1 to this report.

 

(c)           Approve the GF revenue forecasts as set out in GF BSR Section 6, Appendix 1 to this report.

 

(d)          Instruct the Executive Management Team to identify additional income / cumulative savings of £3 million for the five years from 2019-2024.

 

(e)          Delegate the use of the Earmarked reserve for Business Efficiency initiatives to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Lead Member for Finance, and that £1m is transferred into this reserve from the General Fund reserve. As at the end of 2017-18 financial year, the General Fund reserve stood at £7,751,000.

 

(f)            Authorise £500,000 of Planning Earmarked Reserves, budgeted to support the shortfall in income in the year 2018-19, but not required due to sufficient over budget income levels being achieved, to be budgeted to use towards Business Transformation programmes in Planning in 2019-20.

 

(g)          Approve the GF capital programme and associated funding up to the year ended 31 March 2024, as set out in GF BSR Section 7, at Appendix 1to this report.

 

(h)          Set the Council Tax Requirement for 2019-20 at £9,092,962.

 

(i)            Set the amount of Council Tax for each of the relevant categories of dwelling in accordance with Section 30(2) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 on the basis of the District Council Tax for general expenses on a Band D property of £145.31 plus the relevant amounts required by the precepts of the Parish Councils, Cambridgeshire County Council, the Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner and the Cambridgeshire Fire Authority, details of those precepts and their effect to be circulated with the formal resolution required at the Council meeting.

 

 

Revenue – HRA

 

(j)            Approve the HRA savings, increased income, unavoidable revenue pressures, bids and reduced income items, as summarised in Section 4, and detailed in Appendix G (1) of the HRA Budget Setting Report at Appendix 2 to this report.

 

(k)           Approve the non-cash limit adjustments, as summarised in Section 4, and detailed in Appendix G (1) of the HRA Budget Setting Report at Appendix 2 to this report.

 

(l)            Approve the resulting HRA revenue budget as shown in the HRA Summary Forecast 2018-19 to 2023-24 in Appendix I of the HRA Budget Setting Report at Appendix 2 to this report.

 

(m)         Approve the retention of the balance of the 4-year efficiency savings target of £95,000 per annum from 2020-21 included as part of the 2018-19 HRA Medium Term Financial Strategy, and the corresponding Strategic Investment Fund for the same value.

 

Review of Rents and Charges

 

(n)          Approve that council dwelling rents for all social rented properties be reduced by 1% for the final year, in line with legislative requirements introduced as part of the Welfare Reform and Work Act, with effect from 1st April 2019.

 

(o)          Approve that affordable rents are reviewed in line with rent legislation, to ensure that rents charged are no more than 80% of market rent, with this figure then reduced by 1% as with social housing. Local policy is to cap affordable rents at the lower level of Local Housing Allowance, which will result in rent variations in line with any changes notified to the authority in this level, effective from 1st April 2019.

 

(p)          Approve inflationary increases of 2.2% in garage rents for 2019-20, in line with the base rate of inflation for the year assumed in the HRA Budget Setting Report.

 

(q)          Approve the proposed service charges for HRA services and facilities provided to both tenants and leaseholders, as shown in Appendix B of the HRA Budget Setting Report, at Appendix 2 to this report.

 

Housing Capital

 

(r)           Approve the latest budget, spend profile and funding mix for each of the schemes in the new build programme, as detailed in Section 5 and Appendix E of the HRA Budget Setting Report at Appendix 2 to this report, recognising the most up to date information available as each scheme progresses through the design, planning, build contract and completion process.

 

(s)           Approve earmarking of the required level of additional funding for new build investment between 2019-20 and 2023-24 to ensure that commitments can be met in respect of the investment of all right to buy receipts currently retained or anticipated to be received by the authority for this period. This expenditure will either take the form of HRA new build, with the 70% top up met by other HRA resources, acquisition of homes on the open market, or could alternatively be a grant made to a registered provider, where the registered provider will provide the 70% top up to build new homes.

 

(t)            Approve the capital budget proposals, detailed in Appendix G (2) of the HRA Budget Setting Report at Appendix 2 to this report.

 

(u)          Approve the capital amendments, detailed in Appendix H of the HRA Budget Setting Report, which include the capital proposals in Appendix G (2) of the HRA Budget Setting Report, at Appendix 2 to this report, along-side re-profiling of investment, increase and re-allocation of resource for new build schemes.

 

(v)           Approve the revised Housing Capital Investment Plan as shown in Appendix J of the HRA Budget Setting Report at Appendix 2 to this report.

 

Capital and Treasury Management

 

(w)          Approve the Capital and Investment Strategies 2018-19 to 2022-23, Appendix 3 and 3A

 

(x)           Approve the borrowing and lending strategies for the year to March 2020, as included in the Treasury Management Strategy Statement in Appendix 4.

 

(y)           Approve the prudential indicators required by the Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities for the year to 31 March 2020, included in Appendix 4.

 

(z)           Approve any unspent New Homes Bonus money allocated to the Greater Cambridge Partnership to be rolled into 2019-20.

 

 

 

2.            Cabinet agreed, subject to Council approval of the full budget to approve the pay award for 2019-20 based on 2% uplift on all spinal column points and payment of the Joseph Rowntree living wage foundation minimum pay of £9.00 with effect from April 2019.

 

3.            Cabinet agreed to delegate the decision in respect of any variation in fees to be charged by the Home Improvement Agency (HIA), to the Director of Housing and Environmental Services, following agreement of the proposed level of charges by the Shared HIA Board.

 

4.            Cabinet agreed that the Director of Housing & Environmental Services updates statutory fees as they are published by Government, GF BSR Appendix A, Appendix 1 to this report.

 

5.            Cabinet Instructed the Head of Finance, on the basis of the proposals set out in the GF BSR, to prepare formal papers to set the council tax requirement and amount of council tax at the Council meeting on 21 February 2019.