1. That the Financial Sustainability Strategy 2022 – 2032, set out at Appendix 1 to the submitted report, be approved.

2. That the the Medium Term Financial Strategy for 2022/23 – 2026/27, set out at Appendix 2 to the report, and the resulting Medium Term Financial Forecast and estimated Earmarked Reserves Balances up to 2026/27 (Annexes 1 and 2 to Appendix 2 to the report), be approved and that any final minor changes/updates of this Strategy as required, be delegated to the Executive Director (Finance & Resources).

3. That the Section 151 Officer’s statement on the robustness of the proposed budget, the adequacy of the Council’s reserves and the Council’s Reserves Strategy (Appendix 3 to the report), be noted.

4.. That the appropriation of the sums to earmarked reserves totalling

£2.675M (Appendix 4 to the report), be approved.

5. That the appropriation of the sums from earmarked reserves totalling

£4.988M, which includes £2.500M that was previously approved to support

the budget in 2021/22 and is now requested to be used to support the

estimated budget gap for 2022/23 instead (Appendix 4 to the report), be approved.

6. That a General Fund Budget Requirement for 2022/23 of £140.288M

and Council Tax Requirement of £91.844M (Appendix 5 to the report), be approved.

7. That it be noted that the 2022/23 revenue budget has been prepared based on using £1.500 million from accumulated Collection Fund surpluses for the core budget to allow for a smoothing of the budget gap across the next four financial years.

8. That a Council Tax increase of 3.99% for the Southend-on-Sea

element of the Council Tax for 2022/23, being 1.99% for general use and

2.00% for Adult Social Care, be approved.

9. That it be noted that the position of the Council’s preceptors has been determined as follows:

·       Essex Police – proposed Council Tax increase of 4.79%

·       Essex Fire & Rescue Services – proposed Council Tax increase of 1.95%

·       Leigh-on-Sea Town Council – proposed Council Tax increase of 0.71%

10. That no Special Expenses be charged other than Leigh-on-Sea Town Council precept for 2022/23.

11. That the proposed General Fund revenue budget investment of £13.422M (Appendix 6 to the report), be approved.

12. That the proposed General Fund revenue budget savings and income generation initiatives for 2022/23 of £4.837M (Appendix 7 to the report), be approved.

13. That the proposed future outline Budget Transformation Programme 2023/24 – 2026/27 (Appendix 8 to the report), be approved.

14. That the proposed range of fees and charges for 2022/23 (Appendix 9 to the report), be approved.

15. That the Dedicated Schools Grant budget and its relevant distribution as recommended by the Education Board (Appendix 10 to the report), be approved.

16. That the Capital Investment Strategy for 2022/23 to 2026/27 (Appendix 11 to the report) and the Capital Investment Policy (Annex 1 to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 705