Issue - meetings

To consider the budget reports and associated appendices for 2019/20.

Councillor Howell, as Portfolio Holder for Finance and Administration, presented the budget reports for 2019-20. He said the format was different from previous years, with each budgetary scheme being applied as an appendix to the overall covering report, as each report could not be seen in isolation, but rather as part of a longer term narrative. He said he would highlight areas of the budget which he believed were of importance to the Committee.

Treasury Management Strategy

Councillor Howell highlighted the balance sheet summary and five year forecast, which showed the Council’s actual borrowings as of November 2018 as well as likely borrowings in the next five years. He said there was a change to the lending limit to local authorities, from £6 million to £3 million.

Capital Strategy  

Capital expenditure for 2019/20 was estimated to be £17 million. This was due to the renewal of the street services fleet, ICT development projects and the asset maintenance programme.

Councillor Howell drew the Committee’s attention to the Minimum Revenue Provision Statement 2019/20 which stipulated that where the council finances capital expenditure by debt, it must put aside resources to repay that debt in later years.

Capital Programme

Nearly £35 million had been allocated to the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for the next five years (2018/19 to 2023/24). This was to fund the developments at Reynolds Court, Walden Place and Hatherley Court. These projects had received the approval of the Housing Board.

Housing Revenue Account

The Council was still committed to investing in housing stock, particularly sheltered housing schemes, and since the introduction of self-financing had built over 100 homes. As government policy regarding borrowing caps had recently changed, officers were looking into the new financing rules to ascertain whether there would be an opportunity to do more.

General Fund and Council Tax 2019/20

Members were informed of the proposal to increase council tax by 2.99% which would mean a Band D household would pay £151.61 for 2019/20, compared to £147.21 in 2018/19.

A surplus of £2.2 million had been identified for 2019/20.

Councillor Howell said the Council had worked hard to protect the budget and most departmental budgets remained unchanged.

In terms of the General Funds Reserve, significant sums had been ring fenced for the Waste Depot relocation project and for strategic initiatives.

Section 25 report – Robustness of Estimates and Adequacy of Reserves

Councillor Howell highlighted the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) which showed an accumulative deficit over the next five years. To address this deficit, the Investment Strategy recommended the approval of £100 million of borrowing for investment to generate additional income. He said any use of this borrowing would be brought to Full Council for members’ consideration although now would be the time to ensure the Council had the necessary income to maintain the level of services it provided. Due to the substantial changes to government funding of local authorities, the Council was facing a deterioration in finances over the next five years, which, in part would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6