Issue - meetings

This report presents the revenue and capital budgets together with proposals for Council Tax and Adult Social Care Precept for 2021/22.

The Council considered a report presenting the revenue and capital budgets together with proposals for Council Tax and Adult Social Care Precept for 2021/22.

On a motion from Councillor Dine Romero, seconded by Councillor Paul Myers, it was RESOLVED that, in accordance with rule 16 (Suspension of Rules), the Council suspends Council rule 42 (Content and Length of Speeches) for the duration of this debate so as to enable variations to be permitted to the length of speeches by the Cabinet Member for Resources, the Conservative, Independent and Labour Group Leaders or their nominated Spokespersons, and the Chair of the Corporate Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel.

On a motion from Councillor Richard Samuel, seconded by Councillor Dine Romero, it was

RESOLVED that

1.  The Council approves-

a)  The General Fund net revenue budget for 2021/22 of £130.07m and the individual service cash limits for 2021/22 as outlined in Annex 1 to the report.

b)  The savings plans outlined in Annex 2(i), growth and pressures 2(ii), in conjunction with the Equalities Impact Assessment Report in Annex 3 to the report.

c)  An increase in Council Tax of 1.99% in 2021/22 (an increase of £28.99 per Band D property or 56p per week).

d)  An increase of 3% to Council Tax for the Adult Social Care Precept is approved in recognition of the current demands and financial pressures on this service. This is equivalent to an increase of £43.70 on a Band D property (84p per week).

e)  The movement in reserves outlined in section 5.6 of the report and the adequacy of Un-earmarked Reserves at £12.59m within a risk assessed range requirement of £11.6m - £12.8m.

f)  The Efficiency Strategy attached at Annex 4 to the report.

g)  The Capital Programme for 2021/22 of £69.506m including new and emerging capital bids outlined in Annex 5(i), planned sources of funding in 5.8.2, and notes the programme for 2021/22 to 2024/25 and that any wholly funded projects coming forward during the year will be added to the Capital Programme in line with the Budget Management Scheme.

h)  The delegation of implementation, subject to consultation where appropriate, of the capital programmes set out in Annex 5(ii) to Annex 5(iii) to the relevant Director in Consultation with the appropriate Portfolio Holder.

i)  The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) allocations and amendments outlined in Annex 5(iv) of the report.

j)  The Capital & Investment Strategy attached at Annex 6 to the report.

k)  The MRP Policy attached at Annex 7 of the report.

l)  The Capital Prudential Indicators outlined in section 5.8.8 of the report.

m)  The Annual Pay Policy Statement at Annex 8 of the report.

n)  The Community Contribution Fund proposal outlined in Annex 10 of the report.

o)  The Council Tax Support Scheme for 2021/22 shown in the following link;

https://beta.bathnes.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2021-01/Council%20Tax%20reduction%20scheme%20April%201%202021%20-%20March%2031%202022.pdf  and referred to in section 5.3.4 of the report.

2.  The Council approves the technical resolutions that are derived from the budget report, and all the figures in that report,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69

This report presents the revenue and capital budgets together with proposals for Council Tax and Adult Social Care Precept for 2021/22.

Councillor Richard Samuel introduce the Budget & Council Tax 2021/22 by reading out the following statement:

‘This 2020/2021 has been an extraordinary year for our country. COVID has wreaked destruction and damage to our economy and our very way of life. And as of yesterday, nearly 115,000 people have died in the UK, with 4 million people testing positive for Coronavirus. Job losses due to pandemic, as we know, have amounted to nearly 1 million jobs. And the retail and hospitality sector have been particularly badly hit.  In Bath and North East Somerset where we have traditionally had strong dependence on this the impact was quite serious. This isn't an emergency situation in every sense of the word, and one that has hit our Council was hard as it has hit our residents and local businesses. As 20/21 was a difficult year, I fully expect 21/22 to also be a very difficult year for the Council's finances and the succeeding years until 2025. I do expect some recovery for next year, but we also have to be prepared for setbacks along the long road to normality. It was only six months ago that we were forced to introduce an emergency budget in the form of a financial recovery plan that aim to save £20m during the year and stabilise our finances. And I'm pleased to say this decisive action has meant that the Council is on course to balance the books in the current financial year. This is very important because had the Council being forced to draw on its reserves this year, this would have left us very exposed in future years. I am bound at this point say something about the support we have received from the government. Promises at the start of the pandemic made by Robert Jenrick MP, the local government minister have turned out to be based on foundations and sound. He promised we would have all the resources we needed to tackle the pandemic. Well, so far, we have received unrestricted grants of £12m from the government and expect to be able to claim back £18m for income loss. However, this does not fully compensate our income shortfall, as the government scheme only provides 70% reimbursement and excludes all of the Council's commercial income losses. This means that a £14m shortfall exists that we have we have to make up by service cuts and in the main the slowing down of our capital programme. To sum this up, we have been short-changed.

So, against this background, we have been forced to plan for the next financial year. Much of the impact on the Council has been a substantial loss of income which is experienced from the closure of our world heritage assets such as the Roman Baths and Pump Rooms. Other major losses have occurred from reductions in parking and other related transport income. And finally, our commercial estate operating in the marketplace as it does has seen a huge pressure on rental income. Tenants  ...  view the full minutes text for item 95

This report presents the draft revenue and capital budgets together with proposals for Council Tax and Adult Social Care Precept for 2021/22.  Annex 1 is marked ‘to follow’ and will be circulated separately.

The Chair, Councillor Myers, reminded the Panel that they have received the draft minutes of the Children, Adults, Health and Wellbeing PDS Panel (19^th January) and the Climate & Sustainability PDS Panel (25^th January) detailing each Panel’s discussion of the Corporate and Budget Planning item. He explained that these discussions and this Panel’s considerations at this meeting will be fed through to the Cabinet.

Councillor Richard Samuel, Cabinet Member for Resources introduced the item by explaining that this is not a normal budget and not a normal year. There has been a significant shock to Council finances as a result of the ongoing pandemic which will also have repercussions into future years. There will be a report to Cabinet on 11^th February – we expect to balance the budget. He explained that the aim is not to disturb frontline services. He explained that the money borrowed from reserves would be repaid over a longer period. He also added that there is a proposed rise of 1.99% in Council Tax and a 3% Adult Social Care precept. Councillor Samuel thanked Andy Rothery, Director of Finance and his team for their extraordinary work.

Andy Rothery, Director of Finance and S151 officer explained that there has been some budget rebasing in order to reduce reliance on external income and the temporary government Covid grants received in 2020/21. There have been adjustments in Heritage, Commercial Estate and Parking. He explained that, along with the proposed Council Tax increase, extra money has been allocated to the Welfare and Hardship Service and also money put into a Covid risk reserve.

Panel members raised the following points and asked the following questions:

(Officer responses shown in italics)

Councillor Furse noted that income from Heritage Services, Commercial Estate and Parking will be down and that the Estate maybe harder hit again as it contains retail. He asked what assumptions the forecast has been based on. The officer explained that the Commercial Estate re-basing is based on market trend. A calculation has been made also taking into account analysis of void levels (factoring in an increase) and debt risk.

Councillor Elliot referred to the Council Tax benchmarking graph and asked what level of increase would take the authority into the middle of the table. The officer explained that this would involve an approximately 11% rise and bring in and additional £6/7million over and above the proposed 4.99% increase. However as rise of this level is beyond the Council tax cap and would require a local referendum.

Councillor Warrington asked what the £900k Capital Expenditure under Climate Emergency was for. The officer explained this was for feasibility work and initial capital expenditure on various ways the Climate Emergency priority can be taken forwards such as retro fitting Council assets or investments in alternative energy.

Councillor MacFie referred to the Capital Project Resources which had been hit by £1.8m – he asked if this related to a particular project. The officer explained that the saving was across the whole  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62