Issue - meetings

(If a Councillor intends to move a Motion or Amendment in relation to the Council’s annual budget, the text of the proposed Motion or Amendment must be submitted in writing to the Corporate Director by 9.00am on the working day preceding the day of the Council meeting).

At its meeting on 1 February 2023 the Executive Committee considered the 2023/24 budget and RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL:

1.   That a net budget of £11,300,458 be APPROVED.

2.   That a Band D Council Tax of £139.36, an increase of £5 per annum, be APPROVED.

3.   That the growth items for 2023/24, as proposed in Appendix A, be included within the budget.

4.   That the capital programme, as proposed in Appendix B, be APPROVED.

The report considered by the Executive Committee, plus an amendment made since the Executive Committee meeting, is attached for consideration.

79.1           At its meeting on 1 February 2023 the Executive Committee considered the 2023/24 budget and made a recommendation to Council.  

79.2           The report which was considered by the Executive Committee had been circulated with the Agenda for the current meeting at Pages No. 16-43.

79.3           In proposing the recommendation, the Chair of the Executive Committee offered his thanks to everyone involved in the work to ensure the Council had a balanced budget to agree. The Lead Member for Finance and Asset Management seconded the recommendation from the Executive Committee.

79.4           A Member referred to staff pay awards and questioned what assumptions had been made given that last year the Council’s budget had underestimated what would be needed. In response, the Head of Finance and Asset Management explained that £1,600 had been allowed for every scale point which would take the Council to the estimated position of the national living wage at the lowest scale point. In response to a query regarding Parish precepts, he explained that there were no limits so the Parishes could increase their precepts as they wished; however, any that raised their precept over £140,000 had to provide information for the Borough Council to publish with its Council Tax information.

79.5          The proposal was seconded and, in accordance with the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, voting on the proposal was recorded as follows:

79.6           Accordingly, it was

                  RESOLVED         1.    That a net budget of £11,300,458 be APPROVED.

2.    That a Band D Council Tax of £139.36, an increase of £5.00 per annum, be APPROVED.  

4.    That growth items be included within the budget for 2023/24, as proposed in Appendix A to the report.

5.    That the Capital Programme, as proposed in Appendix B to the report, be AGREED.  

To recommend a budget for 2023/24 to the Council. 

That it be RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL:

1.   That a net budget of £11,300,458 be APPROVED.

2.   That a Band D Council Tax of £139.36, an increase of £5 per annum, be APPROVED.

3.   That the growth items for 2023/24, as proposed in Appendix A, be included within the budget.

4.   That the capital programme, as proposed in Appendix B, be APPROVED.

89.1           The report of the Head of Finance and Asset Management, circulated at Pages No. 13-38, set out a proposed net budget total, government support and other financing streams, along with the Council Tax requirement and growth items. The Committee was asked to recommend to Council a net budget of £11,300,458; a Band D Council tax of £139.36, an increase of £5 per annum; inclusion of growth items within the budget for 2023/24 as proposed in Appendix A to the report; and the capital programme as proposed in Appendix B to the report.

89.2           Attention was drawn to Paragraph 2 of the report which set out the local government finance settlement 2023/24 announced on 19 December 2022 and confirmed at the end of January 2023. The settlement was provided using a needs based funding assessment of the support required to deliver services to the Borough, net of the resources that could be raised locally, and was provided via the three streams of Revenue Support Grant; Rural Services Delivery Grant; and Business Rates Baseline funding. Table 1 in the report, showed that the Council’s needs based funding had seen an increase of £203,217, or 10.78%, for 2023/24 - there were a number of factors that had contributed to that increase - Revenue Support Grant for 2023/24 contained two previously specific grants that had been rolled together as the government attempted to simplify the grants system – the grants and their values were: Council Tax Support Administration Subsidy and Family Annexe Council Tax Discount grant; an uplift to the core Revenue Support Grant; a freeze to the rural element of funding; and an uplift to the Business Rates baseline funding. A Funding Guarantee of 3% had been put in place in recognition of current inflationary pressures which had been introduced as one-off funding for 2023/24. This would guarantee that all Councils would see at least a 3% increase in their Core Spending Power before any decisions about organisational efficiencies, use of reserves or Council Tax levels were made. For Tewkesbury, this meant a 3% uplift in its current Core Spending Power of £10million which would result in an uplift in funding support of £300,000. In addition, the Council would benefit from any increase in Council Tax it agreed to rather than it simply replacing lost funding - a £5 increase in Council Tax would generate approximately £184,000 so the new Funding Guarantee would see an increase in Core Spending Power of £484,000.

89.3           Members were advised that last year’s policy on New Homes Bonus would be rolled over for a new round of payments in 2023/24. Tewkesbury would see a New Homes Bonus allocation of £1,240,366 in 2023/24. Business Rates Retention was looking healthy with retention of £1.98 million which was a significant increase on the current year and Virgin Media had been moved to the central list meaning that risk to the Council had been eliminated which was great news. The amount of business rate relief support provided by the government,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 89