Decision details

Medium Term Financial Strategy, General Fund 2018-19 (including council tax setting), Housing Revenue Account Budget 2018-19 (including housing rents), Capital Programme and Treasury Management Strategy

Decision Maker: Scrutiny and Overview Committee, Cabinet, Council

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Decision:

 

 

(1)  Not for call-in.  Cabinet recommended that Council:

 

Revenue and Capital – General Fund (GF)

 

(a)          Approves the revenue estimates for 2018-19 as shown in the GF Budget Setting Reports (BSR) Section 5 at Appendix 1 to the report.

 

(b)          Approves the precautionary items for the GF, GF BSR Appendix B, Appendix 1.

 

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

 

(d)          Instructs the Executive Management Team to identify additional income/savings of £449k for 2018-19 rising to £1.3m in 2022-23.

 

(e)          Approves the GF Capital Programme and associated funding up to the year ended 31 March 2022, as set out in GF BSR Appendix D, at Appendix 1.

 

(f)           Approve the creation of a Planning Policy earmarked reserve and the transfer of £224k into the reserve from the GF reserve, being the carry forward of underspend from 2016-17 not used in 2017-18, as shown in GF BSR Section 3 and delegates approval of the use of this reserve to the Executive Director – Corporate Services in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Staffing.

 

(g)          Requests  that the Portfolio Holder (Housing) delegates the decision in respect of any variation in fees to be charged by the Home Improvement Agency (HIA), to the Director of Housing, following agreement of the proposed level of charges by the Shared HIA Board, GF BSR Appendix A. 

 

(h)         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 22 February 2018.

 

(i)           Sets the Council Tax Requirement for 2018-19 at £8,616,465.16

 

(j)            Sets 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 £140.31 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

 

(k)          Approves 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 the report.

 

(l)           Approves 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 the report.

 

(m)        Approves the resulting HRA revenue budget as shown in the HRA Summary Forecast 2017-18 to 2022-23 in Appendix I of the HRA Budget Setting Report at Appendix 2 to the report.

 

(n)         Approve the retention of the balance of the 4 year savings target included originally 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 2018-19 over-deliver against the profile of £250,000 per annum for 4 years, reducing the balance to be sought in the remaining 2 years to £147,540.

 

Review of Rents and Charges

 

(o)                Approves that council dwelling rents for all social rented properties be reduced by 1%, in line with legislative requirements introduced as part of the Welfare Reform and Work Act, with effect from 2nd April 2018.

 

(p)                Approves 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 2nd April 2018.

 

(q)             Approves inflationary increases of 2.6% in garage rents for 2018-19, in line with the base rate of inflation for the year assumed in the HRA Budget Setting Report.

 

(r)              Approves 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 2to the report.

 

 

Housing Capital

 

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

 

(t)           Approves earmarking of the required level of additional funding for new build investment between 2018-19 and 2022-23 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 or could alternatively be grant made to a registered provider, where the registered provider will provide the 70% top up to build new homes.

 

(u)         Approves the capital budget proposals, both bids and savings, detailed in Appendix G(2) of the HRA Budget Setting Report at Appendix 2 to the report.

 

(v)          Approves 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 the report, along-side re-profiling of investment, increase and re-allocation of resource for new build schemes.

 

(w)         Approves the revised Housing Capital Investment Plan as shown in Appendix J of the HRA Budget Setting Report at Appendix 2 to the report

 

Capital and Treasury Management

 

(x)          Approves the Capital Strategy 2018-19 to 2022-23, Appendix 3.

 

(y)          Approves the borrowing and investment strategies for the year to March 2019, as included in the Treasury Management Strategy Statement in Appendix 4.

 

(z)          Approves the prudential indicators required by the Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities for the year to 31 March 2019, included in Appendix 4.

 

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

 

 

General

 

(bb)       Gives delegated authority to the Executive Director – Corporate Services to issue the final version of the Estimates Book, incorporating any amendments required from the Council’s decisions.

 

Ermine Street Housing Limited (ESH)

 

(2)   Cabinet additionally endorsed the ESH Business Plan Update 2017/18 – 2026/27, attached at Appendix 6 (Confidential) to the report.

 

 

 

Publication date: 12/02/2018

Date of decision: 07/02/2018

Decided at meeting: 07/02/2018 - Cabinet

Accompanying Documents: