Issue - meetings

RECOMMENDED:

Recommendation 1

That Council approve the revision to the budget for 2018/2019 as set out in the report.

Recommendation 2

That Council reaffirm the Policy on Earmarked Reserves and General Fund Working Balance and the maximum balances set for the reserves as noted in the report.  

Recommendation 3

That Council :

1)    Approves the budget of £19,033,410 for 2019/2020 and notes the projections for 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023.

2)    Approves the level of Special Expenses for the Town/Parish Councils as detailed in the report.

3)    Approves the Fees and Charges 2019/2020 detailed in Appendix 5.

4)    Approves a Band D council tax of £125.87 for 2019/2020

Recommendation 4

That Council approves a minimum requirement of the General Fund balance for 2019/2020 of £951,671.

Reason for Decision

The Council is obliged to set a Budget Requirement and level of council tax before the beginning of a financial year commencing on 1 April.

The Deputy Chief Executive presented the budget report which explained that as part of the council tax setting process the Council updated its longer term Financial Plan to take account of any changes in financial settlements, inflation on service costs and revised priorities of the administration.

In February 2018 the Council set out a Financial Plan for 2017/2022.  The Plan reflected the continued significant financial challenges faced by the Council.

Changes to the local government finance system were expected to include the phasing out of Revenue Support Grant (RSG) and changes to the distribution of New Homes Bonus.  There would be a full reset of the business rates system in 2020/2021 which would allow full implementation of reforms to the Business Rates Retention Scheme and the outcome of the review into relative needs and resources, the Fair Funding Review.

The report explained that the Council could present a funded budget for all years of the medium term financial plan to 2023.   There was significant uncertainty from 2020/2021.  The impact of the implementation of the reform of the Business Rates Retention scheme and the Fair Funding Review from 2020/2021 were still unknown, but there was considerable downside risk.

The provisional local government finance settlement announced by Government on 13 December 2018 confirmed the fourth and final year of the 4 year offer.  It was noted that the 4 year offer only included RSG and Rural Services Delivery Grant (RSDG). The ending of RSG had been clearly signaled and it was assumed that the Council would receive no RSG from 2020/2021. As with RSG it had also been assumed that the Council would receive no RSDG from 2020/2021.  This was a cautious approach.

As part of the provisional settlement for 2019/2020 the Government announced an additional £16m in RSDG to ensure that the grant remained at its 2018/2019 level.

It was noted that the Government focus was on Councils’ ‘core spending power’ inclusive of locally generated resources.  The core spending power analysis tables published by the Government for each Council assumed that Councils in the lowest quartile of Council Tax levels (which included the Borough Council) would introduce the full £5 per annum per Band D dwelling Council Tax increase now permitted under the Council Tax Referendum Principles. 

In the provisional local government finance settlement announced on 13 December 2018 the Government approved 15 additional Business Rates Pilots for 2019/2020 including a Norfolk Pilot.  Under the pilot arrangements the amount of RSG and RSDG received is zero.  The value of the RSG and RSDG foregone will be taken into account in setting revised tariffs and top-ups.

The implementation of reforms to the Business Rates Retention Scheme meant existing grants would be incorporated into business rate retention including the RSG and RSDG.  The revised arrangements for business rates retention would not provide this Council with funding to replace the reductions announced in RSG.  The review into relative needs and resources, the Fair Funding Review, would redistribute business rates.  It could be anticipated that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 122