Minute No. 730 (Cabinet Agenda Item No. 9 refers).

Referred direct by Cabinet to all three Scrutiny Committees.

The Committee considered Minute 730 of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 14 January 2021, which had been referred directly to the Policy and Resources Scrutiny Committee, together with a report of the Executive Director (Finance and Resources) presenting the draft General Fund Revenue and Capital Budget for 2021/22 to 2025/26.

Resolved:

That the following decisions of the Cabinet be noted:

“1. That it be noted that a Medium-Term Financial Strategy for 2021/22 – 2025/26 will be available for consideration in February 2021 and the draft Medium Term Financial Forecast and estimated Earmarked Reserves Balances up to 2025/26 (Annexes 1 and 2 to Appendix 1 to the submitted report), be endorsed.

2. That the draft 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 2 to the report), be noted.

3. That the appropriation of the sums to earmarked reserves totalling £3.625M (Appendix 3 to the report), be endorsed.

4. That the appropriation of the sums from earmarked reserves totalling £6.218M, which includes £2.500M to cover the remaining estimated budget gap for 2021/22. (Appendix 3 to the report), be endorsed.

5. That a General Fund Budget Requirement for 2021/22 of £133.423M and Council Tax Requirement of £87.712M (Appendix 4a) and any required commencement of consultation, statutory or otherwise, be endorsed.

6. That it be noted that the 2021/22 revenue budget has been prepared on the basis of using £1.5 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.

7. That a Council Tax increase of 3.99% for the Southend-on-Sea element of the Council Tax for 2021/22, being 1.99% for general use and 2.0% for Adult Social Care (Paragraph 10.16), be endorsed.

8. That it be noted that the position of the Council’s preceptors is to be determined:

·         Essex Police – no indication of Council Tax position

·         Essex Fire & Rescue Services – no indication of Council Tax position

·         Leigh-on-Sea Town Council – proposed precept increase of 3.02%;

9. That no Special Expenses be charged other than the Leigh-on-Sea Town Council precept for 2021/22, be endorsed.

10. That the proposed General Fund revenue budget investment of £8.122M (Appendix 5 to the report), be endorsed.

11. That the proposed General Fund revenue budget savings and income generation initiatives for 2021/22 of £4.155M (Appendix 6 to the report), be endorsed.

12. That the proposed future outline Budget Transformation Programme 2022/23 – 2025/26 (Appendix 7 to the report), be endorsed.

13. That the proposed range of fees and charges for 2021/22 (Appendix 8 to the report), be endorsed.

14. That the Dedicated Schools Grant budget and its relevant distribution as recommended by the Education Board (Appendix 9 to the report), be endorsed.

15. That the Capital Investment Strategy for 2021/22 to 2025/26 (Appendix 10 to the report) and the Capital Investment Policy (Annex 1 to Appendix 10 to the report), be endorsed.

16. That the new schemes and additions to the Capital Investment Programme for the period 2021/22 to 2025/26 totalling £21M for the General Fund and new schemes subject to viable business cases (Appendix 11 to the report), be endorsed.

17. That the proposed changes to the current Capital Investment Programme that were considered for approval as part of the Resourcing Better Outcomes – Financial Performance Report – Period 8 (Appendix 12 to the report), be noted.

18. That the proposed Capital Investment Programme for 2021/22 to 2025/26 of £168.6M for 2021/22 to 2025/26 (Appendix 13 to the report) of which £25.6M is supported by external funding, be endorsed.

19. That the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) Policy for 2021/22 (Appendix 14 to the report) and the prudential indicators (Appendix 15 to the report), be endorsed.

20. That the operational boundary and authorised limits for borrowing for 2021/22 are set at £375M and £385M respectively (Appendix 15 to the report), be endorsed”.

Note: This is an Executive Function, save that approval of the final budget following Cabinet on 16 February 2021 is a Council function.

Cabinet Member: Councillor I Gilbert