Decision details

Council were asked to consider and approve the attached financial strategies and budgets.

Council

AGREED        to

Revenue and capital – General Fund (GF)

(a)          Approve the revenue estimates for 2017-18 as shown in the GF BSR Section 5.

(b)          Approve the precautionary items for the GF, GF BSR Appendix B.

(c)          Approve the GF revenue forecasts as set out in GF BSR Section 6.

(d)          Instruct the Executive Management Team to identify additional income / savings of £163k for 2017-18, rising to £1,531k from 2018-19.

(e)          Approve the GF capital programme and associated funding up to the year ended 31 March 2022, as set out in Appendix D.

(f)           Instruct 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 23 February 2017.

(g)          Set the Council Tax Requirement for 2017-18 at £8,234,344.17.

(h)          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 £135.31 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 – Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

(i)            Approve the HRA revenue budget as shown in the HRA Summary Forecast 2016-17 to 2021-22 in Appendix I of the HRA Budget Setting Report at Appendix 2 to this report.

(j)            Approve the retention of the balance of the 4 year savings target included as part of the 2016-17 HRA Budget Setting Report to mitigate the impact of some of the changes in national housing policy, recognising that the net savings proposed from 2017-18 over-deliver against the profile of £250,000 per annum for 4 years, reducing the balance to be sought in the remaining 3 years to £600,480.

Review of Rents and Charges

(k)          Approve that social housing rents for existing tenants be reduced by 1%, in line with legislative requirements, with effect from 3rd April 2017.

(l)            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 a rent freeze from 3rd April 2017.

(m)        Approve inflationary increases of 1.9% in garage rents for 2017-18, in line with the base rate of inflation for the year assumed in the HRA Budget Setting Report.

(n)          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.

Housing Capital

(o)          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, recognising the most up to date information available as each scheme progresses through the design, planning, build contract and completion process.

(p)          Approve earmarking of the required level of additional funding for new build investment between 2017-18 and 2021-22 to ensure that commitments can be met in respect of the investment of all right to buy receipts retained by the authority, up to the end of December 2016. This expenditure will either take the form of HRA new build, with the 70% top up met by capital receipts anticipated from the sale of self-build plots or could alternatively be grant made to a registered provider, where the registered provider will provide the 70% top up to build new homes.

(q)          Approve the capital budget proposals, both bids and savings, detailed in Appendix G(2) of the HRA Budget Setting Report.

(r)           Approve the capital amendments, detailed in Appendix H of the HRA Budget Setting Report, which include the capital proposals in Appendix G(2), along-side re-profiling of investment, increase and re-allocation of resource for new build schemes and budget to fund the up-front costs for self-build plots, with the latter fully met from the resulting capital receipt.

(s)          Approval of the revised Housing Capital Investment Plan as shown in Appendix J of the HRA Budget Setting Report.

Treasury Management

(t)           Approve the borrowing and investment strategy for the year to March 2018, Appendix F.

(u)          Note the amendment to the capital financing requirement table, as described below and approve the prudential indicators required by the Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities for the year to 31 March 2018, Appendix G.

(v)          Approve the Capital Strategy 2017-18 to 2021-22, Appendix H.

(w)         Approve any unspent New Homes Bonus money allocated to the City Deal to be rolled into 2018-19.

General

(x)          Gives delegated authority to the Interim Chief Executive to issue the final version of the Estimates Book, incorporating any amendments required from the council’s decisions.

In addition to resolution (g) above, Council AGREED the following statutory resolution in respect of Council Tax fro 2017-18:

That the following amounts be now calculated by the Council for the year 2017-18 in
accordance with Sections 31 to 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992:

(a)        £91,867,564                being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council

estimates for the items set out in Section 31A (2) (a) to (f) of the Act (gross expenditure including parish precepts, the Housing Revenue Account and additions to reserves)

(b)        £78,544,628                being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council

estimates for the items set out in Section 31A (3) (a) to (d) of the Act (gross income including the Housing Revenue Account and use of reserves)

(c)        £13,322,936                being the amount by which the aggregate at (a) above

exceeds the aggregate at (b) above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 31A (4) of the Act, as its council tax requirement for the year (net expenditure to be met from council tax) being the district amount of £8,234,340 and the parish precepts of £5,088,596

(d)        £218.93                       being the amount calculated by the Council, in

accordance with Section 31B of the Act, as the basic amount of its council tax for the year (average council tax for a band D property for the District including parishes)

(e)        £5,088,596                  being the aggregate amount of all special items

referred to in Section 34(1) of the Act (parish precepts)

(f)        £135.31                       being the amount calculated by the Council, in

accordance with Section 34(2) of the Act, as the basic amount of its council tax for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which no special item relates (average council tax for a Band D property for the District excluding parishes), the amounts being for each of the categories of dwellings shown below in Table 1.

(h)        In accordance with Section 34(3) of the Act, the basic amounts of council tax

for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which a special item relates are shown by adding the amounts for band D for the District Council in Table 1 and Appendix A

(i)            In accordance with Section 36(1) of the Act, the amounts to be taken into

account for the year in respect of categories of dwellings listed in different
valuation bands are shown by adding the amounts for each band in Table 1 and Appendix A.

That it be noted that for the year 2017-18 Cambridgeshire County Council, Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority have stated the following amounts in precepts issued to the Council, in accordance with Section 40 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, for each of the categories of dwellings as shown in Table 1:

             and

j)            that the Council, in accordance with Section 30(2) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, hereby sets the amounts set out in Appendix B as the amounts of council tax for the year 2017-18 for each of the categories of dwellings shown in Appendix B.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION IN RESPECT OF SETTING THE COUNCIL TAX

Including the precepts from the County Council, the Police and Crime Commissioner, Fire Authority and all of the parishes, the formal Council Resolution would produce a council tax for a band D property of:

On these figures the council tax would range from £1,052.85 for Band A to £3,439.02 for Band H before any discounts or benefits.

Appendix C shows the General Fund summary including Parish precepts and the final Formula Grant figure.