Meeting documents

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 20 November, 2018, copy attached as an appendix.

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes of 20 November 2018 be approved as a correct record.

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes of 20 November 2018 be approved as a correct record.

Councillor Mordue

Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Nuala Donnelly (01296) 585164

(a)          Decision(s)

(1)  That the Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee be thanked for its input to the budget setting process.

(2)  That, in respect of the financial year 2019/20 and the Medium Term Financial Plan, the following be approved for the purposes of Scrutiny:-

(1)          To take into budget planning the £1.916 million of proposed savings as set out within paragraph 4.6 of the Cabinet report.

(2)          To take into budget planning the £2.354 million of forecast pressures as set out within paragraphs 5.2 and 5.3 of the Cabinet report.

(3)          To increase Council Tax by an annual amount equal to £5.00 (3.35%) for a Band D property (equivalent to less than 10 pence per week),  from 1^st April 2019.

(4)          To agree that work should continue on the development of the budget proposals and for any net variance resulting to be either added to, or deducted from General Balances.

(5)          To agree the revised list of Fees and Charges set out on the schedule appended to the Cabinet report.

(6)          To approve the use of £1.48 million from the New Homes Bonus reserve to meet the costs of the Connected Knowledge Programme in 2019/20.

(7)          That the level of the Band D Council tax arising from the Special Expenses Charge for 2019/2020 should remain unchanged.

(b)          Reason(s) for Decision(s)

To facilitate ongoing development of the budget for 2019/2020 and to ensure that appropriate provision is made for the costs of transition to a unitary district council.  The Chairman of the Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee attended the Cabinet meeting and elaborated upon the Committee’s considerations (which are summarised in the Minutes of Cabinet).

(c)        Alternative Options Considered

None as such.  The Cabinet report set out the current position and highlighted the issues that had been taken into account in preparing the budget for 2019/2020.

(d)       Relevant Scrutiny Committee

Finance and Services.  That Committee would be receiving a similar update at its next meeting in January 2019.  The final budget proposals will be submitted to full Council in due course.

(e)        Conflicts of Interest / Dispensation(s)

None.

Cabinet received a report concerning initial budget proposals for 2019/20.  The report referred to the emerging revenue position for the organisation for 2019/20 and future years, and detailed the impact of organisational change, planning decisions, estimated efficiencies and commercialisation gains.  The report also detailed emerging financial opportunities and risks.

Even though it was clearly not the situation, the medium term plan had been constructed largely on the basis of a continuing authority.  This approach provided the new unitary authority with an understanding of the pressures and opportunities facing Aylesbury Vale and its proposed solutions.

The final recommendations of Cabinet would be considered by the Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee on 14^th January 2019 and considered again Cabinet on 16^th January 2019 in the light of the Scrutiny Committee’s comments.  Final recommendations would be submitted to Council in February.  The report now before Cabinet had been considered by the Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee on 17 December.  The Chairman of the Committee attended this meeting and elaborated upon his Committee’s considerations.

In summary form the Scrutiny Committee had commented as follows:-

·         The Scrutiny Committee had been supportive of the decision to repurpose reserves to respond to the costs of local government reorganisation.

·         The Committee had been supportive of AVDC developing a set of priorities underpinning the 2019/20 budget setting process that could act as a sort of corporate strategy and assist with enshrining AVDC values/principles into the new council.

·         The Committee had received an explanation on why costs of providing services to additional residents (housing growth)  was less money than the Council received by way of council tax income from the additional residents.

·         The Committee had noted that a second meeting had been held with the staff side and unions on the staff pay award for 2019/20, and that staff would soon be balloted on an offer, provision for which had been made within the proposed budget.

·         It had been noted that the other district councils were currently combining for an OJEU notice on waste collection.  It had been noted also that it was too early at the moment to comment upon how waste collection services across the new council would be harmonised in the future.  The Scrutiny Committee had expressed contentment with the fact that AVDC was in a good financially resilient position.

·         It had been noted that the future of New Homes Bonus (NHB) was uncertain.  (it was however indicated as part of the discussion on the budget proposals, that there remained an opportunity of holding a further bidding round in relation to the Parishes scheme which was highly valued by them).

·         The Scrutiny Committee had been advised that the Council undertook periodic reviews of people’s eligibility to claim the single persons council tax discount.

Background

The report to Cabinet on 20 November 2018 had set out the context for 2019/20 budget planning and had outlined a series of high level issues facing the Council when developing budget proposals and updating its Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP).  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

Councillor Mordue

Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Nuala Donnelly (01296) 585164

(a)          Decision(s)

That the principles adopted for the emerging capital strategy for 2019/20 and the updated Capital Programme appended to the Cabinet report, be approved for the purposes of scrutiny.

(b)          Reason(s) for Decision(s)

It is part of the Council’s financial strategy to review the Capital Programme at reasonably regular intervals to ensure the availability of funds for approved capital schemes.

(c)        Alternative Options Considered

None as such.  The Cabinet report set out the current position and highlighted the issues that had been taken into account in finalising the Capital Programme for 2019/20 to 2022/23.

(d)       Relevant Scrutiny Committee

Finance and Services.  That Committee would be receiving a similar update at its next meeting in January 2019.  The final Capital Programme proposals will be submitted to full Council in due course.

(e)        Conflicts of Interest / Dispensation(s)

None.

Cabinet considered a report giving an update on the Capital Programme for the current year and setting out a revised programme for 2019/20 onwards.  Cabinet's comments would be passed to the Finance and Services Scrutiny Committee for review as required under policy framework requirements. After consideration of the review by scrutiny, Cabinet would be make formal proposals to Council on 6^th February 2019.

The Capital Programme had been updated to include changes and new proposals agreed by Council and Cabinet during the last year.  The focus of the Capital Programme was on delivery of existing schemes which had already been approved by Council.  The plan reflected the Council strategy to ensure both the prudent use and the maximisation of available capital resources.

The Council maintained an integrated strategic Capital Programme which was divided into three main sections:-

·                     Major Projects – These being the largest and highest profile.

·                     Housing Schemes – Being the housing enabling and housing grant based schemes.

·                     Other Projects – Being all the other schemes included within the capital programme.

The Programme was reviewed annually with the current Programme being last approved and adopted at Council in February 2018.  Since then, the Programme had been altered and amended on several occasions in response to organisational pressures, and agreements with Cabinet and Council where necessary, the Cabinet report reflects all those changes.

At the time of writing the report, the Secretary of State had confirmed his decision to create a single unitary district council for Buckinghamshire which would come into existence in May 2020.

This fundamental change would happen during the period of the proposed capital plan.  This clearly removed the need for medium term planning for Aylesbury Vale as a single entity organisation, as the new organisation would want to determine its own priorities.  However, the Council remained obligated to handover its affairs to the new organisation in the best state it could. 

At this early stage, the financial implications of the announcement were yet to be fully understood.  As thinking and understanding were progressed, the significant financial impacts would be reported to Members.

Future investment and borrowing decisions might be influenced by the outcome of the unitary arrangements and The Cabinet report provided an updated position with respect to forecast receipts and the position with regards to current and future major investment projects.

The report set out the high level issues facing the Council in terms of developing its capital plans.

In addition to the unitary decision, there remained a number of other key uncertainties, e.g. financial impact of Brexit and changes to the economy.  Economic and interest rate forecasting remained difficult with so many external influences weighing on the UK.

Investment returns were likely to remain low during 2019/20 but appeared to be on a gently rising trend over the next few years.  Borrowing interest rates had been volatile so far in 2018-19 and had increased modestly since the summer.  The policy of avoiding new borrowing by running down spare cash balances had served AVDC  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.