Issue - meetings

Issue for Decision

To consider the report for the Medium Term Financial Strategy 2016/17 onwards with a view to recommending a balanced budget to Council on the 2 March 2016 including a proposed level of council tax.

Decision Made

The Committee considered the report for the Medium Term Financial Strategy 2016/17 onwards with a view to recommending a balanced budget to full Council on the 2 March 2016 including a proposed level of council tax.

The Committee were provided with the following briefing notes which gave further details but did not change anything in the report published with the agenda:

·  Consequence of a £5.00 council tax increase;

·  Status on Efficiency Statement;

·  Reversal of Bulky Refuse Fee Increase.

The Committee were given with an overview of the report and briefing notes.  Most of the work before them had been reported to committee before with some exceptions.

The major changes were proposals that would alleviate the immediate budget pressures over the period of the strategy considered by the Committee in January 2016, but not the long term pressures. 

One permanent change was the council tax increase referendum arrangements, where the council was now able to approve an increase at Band D of £5.00 or less than 2%, which ever was greater.  The impact of this on the Medium Term Financial Strategy was included in the briefing note.

A further temporary change was the transitional funding that the report recommended be set aside to mitigate against risk.  The briefing note on Efficiency, paragraph 8, was more specific than the recommendation in the report regarding the one-off grant of £330,000 to aid transition.  This would enable the Council to invest in the activities necessary to progress the efficiency plan and achieve the necessary savings through investment in the actions required to achieve the savings.

The final settlement also impacted on parish councils.  Funding arrangements in relation to support for parish councils for local council tax support targeted the expected date of final loss at the same time as the Council ceased to receive the grant in 2017.  Parish councils were aware their funding would cease.

The business rates were also slightly amended due to more recent data, with the final figures for growth being lower than expected.  This had no negative impact as growth had not been taken into account in the base budget.

The report was developed on the basis of a £5.00 increase in council tax at Band D for 2016-17 only and options were detailed in the report.  The briefing note showed comparisons between a £5.00 increase and 1.99% increase for four years and the impact on the budget.  The calculation had been done using £4.95 as all other Band increases are derivatives 9 of the increase at Band D, and £4.95 was easier to divide by 9.

The Committee went on to discuss the increase in council tax and whether to agree a percentage increase or an increase of £4.95 at Band D.

The Committee also discussed the ceasing of the freighter service and an increase in the charge for bulky waste collection.  There was some opposition to the ceasing of the freighter service, however, it was acknowledged that there would need to be a good reason not to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 164