Agenda item

The attached report presents the revenue and capital budgets together with proposals for increases in Council Tax and the Adult Social Care Precept for 2024/25.

Cllr Mark Elliott introduced the report, moved the officer recommendation and made the following points:

·  The budget has been one of the most difficult that the council has ever had to pull together.  We started from the position a few months ago of a £16.42m funding gap, with massive increases in costs and demand in social care, particularly in children’s social care, the cost-of-living crisis meaning increased costs for things like energy and the consequent pressure on wage increases. 

·  The paper sets out a balanced Revenue budget not just for next financial year, but for the following year as well.  The stability provides the council with the ability to plan.  This is a fantastic achievement, and I want to thank all of you, and all the officers, for all their hard work over the past few months.

·  The government announced that it intended to offer an additional, last-minute, one-off, extra grant for social care in the next financial year.  We received details of that grant on Tuesday of this week.  It provides roughly an extra £1.5m in one-off social care funding next year.  Whilst this is, of course, welcome, it is nothing more than a sticking plaster over the gaping wound that is social care funding.  We propose allocating the extra funds into reserves split between Adults’ and Children’s social care in proportion to the size of their budgets.  These funds will then be available to mitigate the risk of overspend in those portfolios in the coming year.

·  We recognise the need to adequately fund the care of the most vulnerable in society, and so we are proposing a net increase in the Adult Social Care budget of just under £1.7m and in the Children’s Social Care budget of nearly £4m.  I want to recognise that, over the public consultation process, and through the PDS Panels, our third sector partners have raised significant concern about the proposed savings to our Community Contracts.  Our total spend on these types of contract is around £9.3m, and the contracts haven’t been looked at properly for some time – there are something like 77 separate services being commissioned – so it’s reasonable to expect that savings can be made.  However, I acknowledge the concern that a sudden drop in funding would be damaging and doesn’t leave time for those contracts to be properly and carefully reviewed.  The budget proposal has, therefore, been adjusted to spread the savings in Adult Social Care over two years, rather than expecting the savings to come all at once.  I have written to the 3rd Sector providers to reassure them that we do not wish to impose arbitrary savings on them, we want to work with them to undertake a proper review, and to mutually agree a way forward based on maintaining those services which are preventing increased, more costly, demand coming into statutory social care services further down the line.

·  We greatly value the work of the 3rd Sector providers and will work with them, not inflicts things on them.

·  Despite the general financial doom and gloom, on top of the vital work of protecting the most vulnerable in society, and in contrast to many councils across the country, we have been able not just to tread water, but to really pursue our ambitious manifesto commitments to the people of Bath & North East Somerset.

·  This is partly due to the huge success we have seen with the tourist trade in the City of Bath bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels much more quickly than expected.  The Roman Baths are performing fantastically, income from things like parking and the Park & Ride services in the city are well up on our expectations, and vacancy levels in the council’s commercial property portfolio are well below national averages.  This has helped to alleviate some of the huge pressure from other areas.

·  In passing this budget proposal we will be able to:

o  protect our spending on Climate Emergency action.

o  increase our Revenue spend on the Clean & Green initiative to make sure it has a solid long term funding base.

o  progress with our plan to build hundreds of new social housing homes.

o  increase our capital spending on Local Highway Improvements providing many more new crossings, highway safety and cycling schemes.

o  progress plans for the new Fashion Museum which will be a major new asset to the city of Bath.

o  Use Community Infrastructure Levy funding to fund 20 community projects.

o  Use money raised from the Clean Air Zone to start the “Scholars Way” cycling and pedestrian route from Combe Down to St Martin’s Garden in Odd Down.

·  I think we can be very proud of the ambition that this budget sets out, despite the parlous overall state of local government finance.  It protects the most vulnerable, delivers on our manifesto commitments, and sets out a firm foundation for the future of the council.

Cllr Sarah Warren seconded the motion and made the following points:

·  Local Government is facing challenges in managing intense pressures on budgets from mounting inflation and rising demand for services.  The pressures on spending, particularly in social care, are enormous.  This means that for those areas of the council’s work that are discretionary, such as Green Transformation, it is harder and harder to carve anything at all from the pie.

·  In the proposed budget we will sustain levels of funding to support our corporate priority to tackle the climate and ecological emergencies over the course of the current administration. There is good news in that we are just getting to the point of having recruited to the new posts we were awarded in budget setting this time last year, and we are really starting to see the extent of what we will be able to deliver with this new team in post – and in that context we will be increasing our work with communities to raise awareness and support local action for climate and nature.

·  We have a strong track record of successful bids to government and external agencies for funding, and as a result we have a healthy programme of work ahead on our Net Zero, Nature Positive goals - looking to reduce carbon emissions from buildings and power, enable real choice of alternatives to the car, and support nature recovery.

·  Cllr Warren outlined the proposals for energy, supporting nature and sustainable transport.

·  Despite a dire picture nationwide for local government, and amidst extremely difficult decisions that we have had to take across the board of council activities, our officers are to be applauded for finding imaginative ways to continue to fund progress against our corporate priority of tackling the climate and nature emergency, whilst continuing to deliver day to day for our residents.

Cllr Matt McCabe acknowledged the cuts to local government funding.  He thanked Cllr Elliott and officers for making a huge effort to address these concerns.  He welcomed the work that is taking place to address the concerns of the third sector.

Cllr Kevin Guy made a plea for central Government to reconsider how local government is funded, especially social care.

RESOLVED (unanimously):

(1)  To recommend Council to approve:

·  The General Fund net revenue budget for 2024/25 of £135.85m and the individual service cash limits for 2024/25 as outlined in Annex 1 of the report.

·  The savings and income plans outlined in Annex 2(i), funding requirements 2(ii), in conjunction with the Equalities Impact Assessment Report in Annex 3 of the report.

·  An increase in Council Tax of 2.99% in 2024/25 (an increase of £49.45 per Band D property or 95p per week).

·  An increase of 2% to Council Tax for the Adult Social Care Precept in recognition of the current demands and financial pressures on this service. This is equivalent to an increase of £33.07 on a Band D property (64p per week).

·  The movement in reserves outlined in section 5.6 and the adequacy of Un-earmarked Reserves at £12.58m within a risk assessed range requirement of £12.3m - £13.6m.

·  To note the Children’s Services management plan set out in section 5.2.7 of the report.

·  The Efficiency Strategy attached at Annex 4 of the report.

·  The Capital Programme for 2024/25 of £71.91m including new and emerging capital bids outlined in Annex 5(i), planned sources of funding in 5.8.3, and notes the programme for 2025/26 to 2028/29 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.

·  The delegation of implementation, subject to consultation where appropriate, of the capital programmes set out in Annex 5(i) to Annex 5(iv) to the relevant Director in consultation with the appropriate Cabinet Portfolio Holder.

·  The schedule of asset disposals as set out in section 5.8.2 and delegates the final disposal decision to the Head of Commercial and/or Corporate Estate in consultation with the S151 Officer and appropriate Cabinet Portfolio Holder.

·  The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) allocations and amendments outlined in Annex 5(v).

·  The Capital & Investment Strategy attached at Annex 6 of the report.

·   The MRP Policy attached at Annex 7 of the report.

·  The Capital Prudential Indicators outlined in 5.8.7 of the report.

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

·  The Community Contribution Fund extension outlined section 5.5 of the report.

·  The Council Tax Support Scheme for 2024/25 shown in the following link:  https://beta.bathnes.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2024-01/Bath%20%26%20NE%20Someset%20S13A%20202425%20FINAL.pdf and referred to in 5.3.5 of the report.

·  The Fees and Charges schedule for 2024/25 at Annex 11 of the report and support its publication following approval of the budget, with delegation to amend individual costs within the schedule in line with market needs, to the Director of Place Management, in consultation with the appropriate Cabinet Portfolio Holder.

·  The additional Social Care Grant of £1,520,318 announced in the final local government finance settlement is allocated to fund a £1,101,302 Adult Social Care contingency and a £419,016 Children’s Services contingency for managing in year budget risk. The additional Services Grant of £14,638 is used to increase the corporate inflation contingency to £1.01m.

(2)  To agree that the Council include in its Council Tax setting, the precepts set and approved by other bodies including the local precepts of Town Councils, Parish Councils, and Charter Trustees of the City of Bath, and those of the Fire and Police Authorities.

(3)  To note the S151 Officer’s report on the robustness of the proposed budget and the adequacy of the Council’s reserves outlined in 5.7 of the report.

(4)  To note the budget consultation responses set out in Annex 10 of the report.

(5)  To authorise the Council’s S151 Officer, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Resources, to make any necessary changes to the draft budget proposal for submission to Council.