The Director of Resources submitted a report setting out an interim position in relation to the Council’s draft Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and associated spending plans for the three years 2021/22 to 2023/24 for public consultation.  The report covered all aspects of the Council’s spend: General Fund revenue expenditure funded by Council Tax, Business Rates, government grant and other sources of income; Housing Revenue Account (HRA) expenditure, funded by council tenants’ rents; and the Council’s Capital Programmes (General Fund and HRA) funded by grants and contributions, capital receipts, revenue and prudential borrowing.  The following documents were attached to the report:

·       Appendix 1 - Summary of Interim General Fund Budget 2021/22 to 2023/24

·       Appendix 2 - Interim General Fund Revenue Budget by Service 2021/22 to 2023/24

·       Appendix 3 - Detailed Interim General Fund Budget Changes 2021/22 to 2023/24

·       Appendix 4 - Interim Housing Revenue Account Budget 2021/22 to 2023/24 and Reserves

·       Appendix 5 - Interim General Fund and HRA Capital Programme 2021/22 to 2023/24

·       Appendix 6 - Flexible Capital Receipts Strategy

·       Appendix 7 - Fees and Charges

·       Appendix 8 - Equality Impact Assessment

The report explained that work was ongoing to close the Council’s budget gap and present a balanced budget for 2021/22 and MTFS.  The Draft General Fund Revenue Budget proposals included within the report and the associated MTFS were based on the latest information available, but a number of matters and assumptions remained to be including the formal determination of the  Council Tax Base, the impact of the Spending Review and the subsequent  Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement expected in mid-December, and agreement of the Business Plan and associated contract sum for Brighter Futures for Children. Following a consultation on the draft Budget and resolution of the above matters a further report would be brought to Policy Committee on 15 February 2021 recommending approval of a balanced budget to Full Council.

The report explained that the MTFS built on work over the previous two to three years and sought to facilitate vital investment in core infrastructure to drive efficiency improvements, facilitate service redesign and thereby manage pressures within demand led services.  This invest to save approach enabled vital and valued services to continue to be delivered albeit differently. The Budget Strategy relied on significant service transformation to drive increased efficiency savings and income generation.  Budgets to support children’s services (agreed as part of the existing MTFS) included growth to recognise inflationary pressures as well as demographic growth, but also robust savings and efficiency targets underpinned by contingency provision to mitigate against slippage or non-delivery of the most challenging savings.  These assumptions were currently under review as part of the ongoing work with BFFC to agree its Business Plan and contract sum.

Resolved –

That the Interim Draft 2021/22 General Fund and Housing Revenue Account budgets, Draft Capital Programme and Medium-Term Financial Strategy as set out in Appendices 1-8, be agreed for consultation, noting the following:

a)       the Council’s Interim General Fund Budget Requirement of £143.702m for 2021/22 and an assumed increase in the band D Council Tax for the Council of 1.99% plus an additional 1.00% Adult Social Care precept, or £50.60 per annum representing a band D Council Tax of £1,742.76 per annum as set out in paragraphs 12.1 to 12.3;

b)       the potential impact on the budget gap of increasing the additional adult social care precept in 2021/22 as set out in paragraph 12.5;

c)       the proposed service savings and efficiencies of (£12.5m) and additional income of (£0.8m) currently proposed in 2021/22 and set out in Appendix 2, plus corporate savings of (£0.9m);

d)       the overall savings currently proposed within the MTFS of (£27.7m) (of which changes to income, fees and charges is (£5.3m)), plus the three-year growth changes to service budgets of £20.4m as set out in Appendix 3;

e)       the Housing Revenue Account Interim budget for 2021/22 of £41.8m as set out in Appendix 4 which assumes a 1.5% increase in social dwelling rents from April 2021 giving a revised weekly average target rent of £104.11 as set out in paragraph 16.2;

f)        the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account Interim Capital Programmes as set out in Appendices 5a and 5b;

g)       the Strategy for the use of flexible capital receipts to deliver future transformation and ongoing savings as set out in Appendix 6; and

h)       the Fees and Charges outlined in Appendix 7 of the report.