Meeting documents

Consideration was given to the report which provided information affecting the Council’s revenue budget for 2016/17 in order for the Cabinet to make recommendations to Council on 24 February regarding the Council’s budget and council tax for 2016/17.

 

The Director of Resources advised that the continuing material reduction in funding to the Council had been anticipated, but was now confirmed to be at a more accelerated pace.  Funding reductions were to continue until at least 2019/20 and Chiltern District Council will no longer receive Revenue Support Grant (RSG) after 2016/17; which was due to Chiltern District Council being seen as a low needs and high resource authority.  Chiltern was forecast to be in the top ten authorities by reduction in Government Funding assessments by the end of the Spending Review period (2019/20).

 

For authorities who were no longer in receipt of RSG before 2020/21, they would be subject to additional tariff payments so that the overall reduction in Government funding did not fall only on authorities in receipt of RSG, this could be seen as a ‘negative RSG’.  Chiltern had responded to the Government on this matter to express concern and seek some means to dampen the impact or phasing in its effects on a more gradual basis.  The impact of the additional tariff was outlined in the report as £150K in 2017/18; £480K in 2018/19 and £850K in 2019/20.

 

The Director of Resources reported that an important source of grant funding for the authority was the New Homes Grant that currently rewarded authorities for each new home by providing a grant equivalent to the national average Band D Council Tax on the property for each of the six years following completion of the property.

 

The Government was consulting on changing the New Homes Grant system.  The consultation was looking at reducing the duration of funding to four years or less, from the current six years; and also suggesting the following:

• Linking payments to authorities having in place an approved Local Plan
• Having different payments for houses created after appeal from those approved by the authority without going to appeal
• Having a minimum baseline for housing growth numbers, above which additional funding would be received.  The baseline was proposed to be that the normal growth in properties was 0.25% per annum.  For Chiltern this was approximately 110 units.

 

These changes would impact on the funding the Council would receive from 2017/18 onwards.

 

Members were advised that growth in business rates above the baseline were subject to a 50% levy, with the levy being additional payments to the Government.  The amount of the levy can be reduced if groups of authorities pool their business rates and payments to the Government.  As Chiltern and two other Buckinghamshire Districts, South Bucks and Aylesbury Vale, expect to have business rate growth, they had formed a pool for 2016/17 in order to retain more of the growth.

 

It was reported that since Cabinet had reviewed the draft budget in December there had been five adjustments as follows:-

• Savings had been built in as a result of the Joint Revenues & Benefits Shared Services having been agreed £105K
• Final salary revisions £20K
• Savings arising from changes in the waste contract cost estimates £31K
• The payment to the parishes in respect to the impact of Council Tax Scheme on their tax bases  for 2016/17 had been scaled back to £29K to match the reduction in RSG for Chiltern District Council
• Income figures had been updated to reflect the provisional Finance Settlement

 

It was drawn to members attention that the 2016/17 budget included a contribution to the Capital Projects Reserve to provide additional support to the Capital Programme over the coming years.  The need for this was illustrated by the next report on the agenda.

 

During consideration of this item, Councillor C Ford joined the meeting at 7.00pm

 

In response to questions from Members, the Director of Resources advised that all Parish Councils had been advised of the reduction in payment in December, and that there would be no further support after 2016/17 as the council was no longer receiving RSG; and in terms of the criteria used for the determining the additional tariff members were advised that this was detailed on the Communities and Local Government website

 

During consideration of this item, Councillor D Varley joined the meeting at 7.10pm.

 

The Deputy Leader was in attendance at the meeting and added to the debate that it was key to not only plan for the current year in respect of the budget but due to continuing pressures on finances the Council needed to look at long term impacts and implications to plan for this.

 

The Leader of the Council also contributed in response to a member’s question in respect of the issues being raised nationally to highlight the concerns of councils facing the additional tariff.  The Leader confirmed that Chiltern District Council were raising this, along with other authorities, at a national level.

 

Members felt it was important to explain to residents what the Government was doing with respect of the additional tariff on the District.  It was felt that following the formal decision of Council in respect of Council Tax Setting the communications around this should include reference to the requirement on the Council to pay an additional tariff to the Government.

 

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET:

 

Revenue Budget 2016/17

 

1)    That the Revenue budget for 2016/17 be approved, as summarised in the table below, and recommend this to Council.

           

	2015/16 £k	2016/17 £k	2017/18 £k	2018/19 £k	2019/20 £k
RSG	-1,055	-407
Business Rates	-1,355	-1,666	-1,690	-1,730	-2,170
Additional Tariff			150	480	850
New Homes Grant	-734	-1,047	-667	-438	-448
CT Freeze Grant	-70
Investment Income	-110	-140	-80	-60	-60
Collection Surplus	-100	-23	-20	-20	-20
Contribution to Parishes	80	29
Total Income	-3,344	-3,254	-2,307	-1,768	-1,848
Service Expenditure	9,101	9,104	9,312	9,545	10,114
Notional Interest	70	54	30	10	10
Change in Reserves: Elections	-76	20			-80
Capital Contribution	394	394	394	394	394
LDF Fund	-306	-163
Capital Projects	1,307	1,197
Total Net Expenditure	10,490	10,606	9,736	9,949	10,438
Precept Required	7,146	7,352	7,429	8,181	8,590
Council Tax Base	43,143	43,560	43,660	43,910	44,060
Band D	165.62	168.77	172.13	175.56	179.05
Precept on Collection Fund
Total collected	7,146	7,352	7,515	7,709	7,889
Surplus/Shortfall	0	0	-86	472	701

 

2)    That in total £29,000 be provided to Chiltern District Council parishes in respect of the impact of Council Tax Scheme on their tax bases for 2016/17.

 

3)    That the following use of earmarked reserves for 2016/17 be agreed:

             - Local Development Plan £163,500

 

4)    That the following additions to earmarked reserves for 2016/17 be agreed:

            Capital - Funding replacement refuse vehicles, £394k

Capital - Funding of future capital programme, £1,197k.

 

5)    That a budget requirement of £10,495k be approved, which will result in a District council tax of £168.77 for a Band D property.

 

6)    That the level of fees and charges for 2016/17 already considered by Portfolio Holders as part of the information underpinning their budgets be confirmed

 

7)    That the advice of the Director of Resources be noted (Appendix A).

 

Setting the Council Tax

 

8)    That the report be made available to all Members of the Council in advance of the Council Tax setting meeting on 24th February, and a final report is produced for the Council meeting incorporating the information from preceptors, and the final decisions of the Cabinet on the budget.