Agenda item

To consider Item 9

The Deputy Director of Finance and Assets firstly advised Members that there was a line of text missing that should have preceded the recommendations that was erroneously omitted from the paper, which should have read “It is recommended that the Authority be recommended to:” Secondly, Appendix 1 & 2 had been updated following more accurate council tax and rates collection figures provided by the respective billing authorities.

The Deputy Director of Finance and Assets advised Members that the main report Annex A presented the proposed revenue and capital Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for the financial years 2022/23 to 2026/27.  The MTFP was closely linked to the Financial Strategy update provided in December 2021, which was the link between the organisation’s long-term service objectives and its financial capacity. The Authority’s long-term Service objectives were set out in the Public Safety Plan (PSP) and Corporate Plan.

The final settlement was published on 7 February 2022 and was due to be debated tomorrow.  One key change this year from previous settlements, was that the government had provided the lowest charging quartile of fire and rescue authorities (FRAs) the flexibility to increase their band D precepts by £5 in 2022/23 without the need to hold a referendum. This was to assist those FRAs in addressing immediate pressures and to maintain a sustainable income baseline for future years. The Authority was included within these eight FRA’s and had the option to increase Council tax precept by £5.

The Service’s most recent report  dated December 2021 by HMICFRS, noted in its summary, “that they were encouraged by the service’s work to improve value for money, but  still have concerns about the service’s funding model as its limited reserves are being used to supplement funding of its response functions.”  If Members were to approve a £5 increase in precept, this would result in approximately £1.1m additional funding compared to a precept increase of 2%. The additional funding would predominantly be utilised to recruit additional firefighters to build its response functions.  Furthermore, the Authority would be able to increase the revenue contributions to capital which would build the reserves that were used for funding the capital programme, in the process addressing another concern raised within the HMICFRS report.

The Deputy Director of Finance and Assets advised Members that the key assumptions were detailed in Section 4 of Annex A and were based on information received to date. An additional £822m unringfenced services grant would be distributed to all tiers of government.  This grant was for 2022/23 only and the government would work with the sector on how they distribute this funding from 2023/24 onwards. The funding was in recognition of the range of vital services delivered by all tiers of government across the country. Indicative figures show that Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service would receive £0.355m, which had been reflected in its projections under the heading Services Grant.

Council tax collection funds were adversely impacted since the start of the Pandemic whereby the tax base reduce by 0.65% in 2021/22.  However, the latest projections show a recovery in the collection fund with a projected growth of 2.19% in the tax base.

The Deputy Director of Finance and Assets advised that uncertainty persisted regarding pensions following the ruling in December 2018 that the transitional arrangements introduced for the firefighters’ schemes in 2015 were discriminatory. The Executive Committee had adopted the immediate detriment framework in November 2021 and the officers were currently processing claims from members who want to be treated as if they remained on their original pension scheme.  It was expected that this would increase the longer-term costs of the firefighters’ schemes, although it was not yet possible to quantify the impact.

The Revenue Support Grant/Business Rates for 2022/23 had been revised downwards from £8.000m to £7.826m (a decrease of £174k).  Future year’s forecasts had been updated to reflect this movement.  Previous figures used were taken from the provisional funding settlement which was an estimate and more accurate figures would be provided when billing authorities confirm them.

The Council Tax surplus figure for 2022/23 has been revised downwards from £257k to £222k (a decrease of £35k) as one of the billing authorities had recently confirmed their deficit which was not available at the time of producing the report. Due to these changes, the Revenue Contribution to Capital budget in Appendix 1(a) and 1(b) for 2022/23 had been revised downwards from £1.825m to £1.616m (a net decrease of £209k). The Net Budget Requirement shown in Appendix 1(a) and 1(b) for 2022/23 had therefore also decreased by £209k (from £33.689m to £33.480m).

RESOLVED –

That the Authority be recommended to:

1(a) Note and have due regard to the report and Statement of the Chief Finance Officer (see section 8 of Annex A).

1(b) Approve a Council Tax precept of £72.16 for a band D equivalent property (equal to an increase of 9.6p per week) and the revenue budget as set out in Appendix 1.

1(c) Approve the capital programme as set out in Appendix 2.