Issue - meetings

To recommend the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), Revenue and Capital Budget 2023/24 and Precept to Council.

Supporting documents:

Appendix 1 Medium Term Financial Strategy

Appendix 2 Budget Consultation Report

Appendix 3 Corporate Overview and Scrutiny draft minutes (4 January 2023)

Appendix 4 Equality Impact Assessment (see separate pack)

The decision to take into account the outcomes of the recent formal budget consultation and feedback from Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Cllr Phil Awford (Chair of Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee) to present the Scrutiny Committee’s observations.

Cllr Lynden Stowe, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Change, sought Cabinet approval to recommend the Medium Term Financial Strategy, (MTFS), 2023/24 budget and precept to Council.

Having considered all of the information, Cabinet noted the report and

RESOLVED to:

1)    Consider the outcome of the budget consultation as set out in Appendix 2 and the report from the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee (COSC) in Appendix 3.

2)    Approve the draft budget and to approve the MTFS and final revenue and capital budget for 2023/24 for recommendation to County Council, including all of the proposals set out in the annexes of the detailed MTFS (Appendix 1).

3)    Note the schools funding allocations, the provisional local government finance settlement and forecast reserve movements as summarised in this report and set out in the MTFS.

4)    Recommend to Council a revenue budget of £566.110 million, a band D council tax of £1,523.78 and consequential precepts on District Councils.

5)    Note the Capital Strategy and Treasury Management Strategy & Investment Strategy as set out in Annexes 7 & 10 of the detailed MTFS.

6)    Note the Risk Management Policy Statement & Strategy 2022-25 as set out in Annex 11 of the detailed MTFS for submission to County Council.

Cllr Lynden Stowe, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Change, sought Cabinet approval to recommend the Medium Term Financial Strategy, (MTFS), 2023/24 budget and precept to Council.

Cllr Stowe reflected on the impact of the economic challenges experienced during the past year and thanked officers for the work involved in producing the draft budget and Medium Term Financial Strategy.

Outlining the recommendations within the report, Cllr Stowe proposed a revenue budget of £566.110m, an increase of £44.780m from the current year. He confirmed that the proposal was based on an overall Council Tax increase of 4.99%, (made up of 2.99% general Council Tax increase plus a 2% Adult Social Care (ASC) Precept increase), and included: -

Ø  An additional £18.8m towards the Adults Budget

Ø  An additional £17.3m towards the Children and Families Budget

Ø  An additional £9.2m towards the Economic, Environment and Infrastructure Budget

Ø  An additional £1.2m for Community Safety

Ø  An additional £730k for Prevention and Wellbeing

Ø  An additional 2.3m to fund the increase utility costs across the Council

The proposal to include the creation of a £6.2m Children’s Services reserve to help mitigate the volatility in the external placement market, (in addition to the additional £17.3m referred to above).

Reiterating the unprecedented economic challenges of the previous year, Cllr Stowe explained that it had been necessary to use £8.9m of reserves to balance the budget. To maintain a robust and affordable budget in future years, he advised that it would be necessary to undertake a series of service based reviews during 2023/24 to ensure value for money and to ensure expenditure focussed on the objectives laid out in the Council Strategy.

Cllr Stowe proposed a Capital Budget of £235m.

The proposal included: -

Ø  £10.9m of Disabled Facilities Grants

Ø  £9.9m towards the cost of a new primary school in Bishops Cleeve

Ø  £7m towards the provision of semi-independent accommodation for vulnerable young people.

Ø  £36.4m towards M5 Junction 10 improvements

Ø  £9m towards the Gloucester to Cheltenham cycle route

Ø  £800k towards the roll out of Fastershire broadband 

Ø  £600k for improvements to Libraries

Ø  £3m towards new fire appliances,

Ø  £1.5m to upgrade the Council’s ICT infrastructure

Ø  £12.5m to be set aside to fund projects aimed at improving efficiency, reducing costs and increasing income generation, and

Ø  £83.6m of new capital investment (included in the MTFS)

Leader of the Council, Cllr Mark Hawthorne, referenced the public consultation exercise undertaken in December 2022 and confirmed that the results of the consultation had been reviewed by the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 4 January 2023. The comments from this meeting were appended to the cabinet report at Appendices 2 and 3. Cllr Hawthorne thanked the Chair and the members of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee for their thorough review of the outcomes of the consultation.

Having considered all of the information, Cabinet noted the report and

RESOLVED to:

1)    Consider the outcome of the budget consultation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5