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Council and councillors

Issue - meetings

Final Budget

Meeting: 19/02/2019 - Cabinet (Item 625)

625 REVENUE AND CAPITAL BUDGET 2019/20 AND MEDIUM TERM FINANCIAL PLAN pdf icon PDF 195 KB

Report No. 44/2019

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Report No.44/2019 was received from the Strategic Director for Resources.

 

Mr G Brown, Portfolio Holder for Planning, Environment, Property and Finance introduced the report the purpose of which was to recommend the final budget to Council for approval.

 

During discussion the following points were raised:

 

·         The report had been scrutinised in detail at the previous Cabinet meeting in January and at two Scrutiny Panel meetings where concern was voiced about the level of Government funding for the future.

·         A number of deputations had been made to Government to request information on funding after 2021, preferably by September of this year, as without it it would be difficult to set the next budget.

·         The MP for Rutland would be lobbying the Treasury on the Council’s behalf. 

·         The community had been consulted on the budget through the use of social media, articles in the press and parish briefings.

·         Key responses from residents, out of the 32 replies received were:

-       Care services should be prioritised

-       Happy to increase Council Tax to provide care services

-       Appreciated that because of funding cuts and increased demand the Council were stuck ‘between a rock and a hard place’.

-       9 thought RCC was a high spending authority (whereas in fact it had one of the lowest per capita spends of all unitary authorities)

-       One person felt that the 25% single person discount for Council Tax was not enough and also that those without children should pay less.

-       Some felt there was not enough being done for cyclists

·         Parish Councils recognised the constraints that the Council was operating under but were unaware of any deputations being made to Government to increase funding for Rutland. The Portfolio Holder and Officers stressed that plenty of work to lobby Government was being done and this would be promoted and communicated much more widely. 

·         It was difficult to get a sense regarding future funding as any outcome was likely to be the subject of ‘damping’ a process adopted by Government whereby some authorities were given additional funding at the expense of others.

·         The Council operated a local council tax support scheme which offered up to 75% discount for those on low incomes. Further funds of £20k to offer support to those who could demonstrate financial hardship were also available. Work was being done with Citizens Advice to ensure that residents knew about these Council Tax schemes and any discounts that they could been entitled to.

·         The Council’s priority would always be to maintain frontline services wherever possible and it would achieve this by doing things differently and working ‘smarter’ to deliver savings.

 

DECISION:

 

1.    Cabinet RECOMMENDED to Council that it

 

a)    Approves the Revenue Budget for 2019/20 detailed in Appendix 1, section3.

b)    Approves that the minimum level of general reserves remains at £2m.

c)    Approves a Council Tax increase of 4.99% (of which 2% is for expenditure on adult social care)

d)    Notes the capital programme as detailed in Section 4 of Appendix 1

e)    Notes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 625