A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Council and councillors

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Catmose, Oakham, Rutland, LE15 6HP. View directions

Contact: Corporate Support  01572 720922

Items
No. Item

530.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

In accordance with the Regulations, Members are invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests in respect of items on this Agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

 

Minutes:

Mr Conde

Agenda Item 4

Report No. 8/2018

Revenue and Capital Budget 2018/19 and Medium Term Financial Plan

Mr Conde declared a personal interest as his granddaughter attended Oakham Church of England School and required assistance; resulting a new member of staff being appointed to support her.

 

 

 

Mrs Stephenson

Agenda Item 4

Report No. 8/2018

Revenue and Capital Budget 2018/19 and Medium Term Financial Plan

Mrs Stephenson declared on the grounds of probity as she was in full time employment at Leighfield Academy.

 

531.

PETITIONS, DEPUTATIONS AND QUESTIONS

To receive any petitions, deputations and questions received from Members of the Public in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule 217.

 

The total time allowed for this item shall be 30 minutes.  Petitions, declarations and questions shall be dealt with in the order in which they are received.  Questions may also be submitted at short notice by giving a written copy to the Committee Administrator 15 minutes before the start of the meeting.

 

The total time allowed for questions at short notice is 15 minutes out of the total time of 30 minutes.  Any petitions, deputations and questions that have been submitted with prior formal notice will take precedence over questions submitted at short notice.  Any questions that are not considered within the time limit shall receive a written response after the meeting and be the subject of a report to the next meeting.

Minutes:

No petitions, deputations or questions were received from members of the public.

532.

QUESTIONS WITH NOTICE FROM MEMBERS

To consider any questions with notice from Members received in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule No 219 and No 219A.

Minutes:

No questions were received from Members.

533.

REVENUE AND CAPITAL BUDGET 2018/19 AND MEDIUM TERM FINANCIAL PLAN pdf icon PDF 122 KB

To receive Report No. 8/2018 from the Director for Resources.

 

·         The above report was presented to Cabinet on 16 January 2018 and the recommendations within the report were approved.

 

·         Cabinet has requested that Scrutiny review and comment on proposals before the Cabinet on 20 February 2018 so as to inform the decision-making process.

 

·         The report and its proposals may be amended following the outcome of the Scrutiny Panel.  Scrutiny is therefore asked to consider the report and provide feedback to the Portfolio Holder and Director.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Report No. 8/2018 from the Director for Resources was received.

 

The Acting Leader, Mr Hemsley, introduced the report advising Members that on 16 January 2016 Cabinet had approved the draft budget for consultation which the Scrutiny Panel had before them.

 

The context for the draft budget was one that the Council was now unfortunately used to: getting less Government funding at a time when it had significant pressure on the budget through greater demand for important services, such as providing care for adults and children.

 

Councillor Hemsley set out some of the key points:

 

•                  The Council was getting £1.5m less in Government funding this year.  This came on the back of cuts in previous years.  The best example was Revenue Support Grant – it was £4m in 15/16 and was now 0.   Only 20% of the Council’s funding per head came from Government compared to a national average of 40%.  The Council continued to lobby on this point as it was unfair.

•                  The Government response to funding cuts was to allow Council to raise an additional 1% in council tax.  If the Council did this (and the proposal from Cabinet was that Council raised council tax by 4.99%), the extra council tax of £1.6m would effectively replace the lost Government funding but it would not be enough to meet the pressures the Council was seeing on costs. 

•                  Members would prefer to avoid raising council tax but the loss of funding put the Council in a difficult position.  The report itself showed that the consequences of not raising council tax to the full amount were significant over the medium term.

•                  Like all councils Rutland did not want to spend more than it needed to and it prided itself on being low cost but it now faced uncontrollable costs of c£1m arising from increases in inflation and a proposed pay award (agreed nationally). 

•                  On top of these pressures, there were service pressures of over £1m.  £522k related to children’s care services where the Council had seen costs increase over 100% since 11/12.  Keeping children safe in Rutland is costing more than ever before but was something which was very important to all.

•                  So despite the fact that the Council had come up with savings of over £1.3m, it was still left with a budget that was increasing.

•                  This meant therefore that despite proposed council tax increases, the Council would still have to use its reserves to balance the budget. 

 

The financial outlook over the coming years remained challenging – it looked like there would be no more funding but the Council would continue to lobby to get the best deal it could and do its utmost to protect front line services.  The Council knew that it faced a financial gap in the future and this was something which it wanted to resolve.  The Council’s plan for this was to:

 

·       Close the gap in a measured way – there was no need for drastic action ·       Continue  ...  view the full minutes text for item 533.

534.

TREASURY MANAGEMENT STRATEGY AND CAPITAL INVESTMENT STRATEGY 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 86 KB

To receive Report No. 6/2018 from the Director for Resources

 

·         The above report was presented to Cabinet on 16 January 2018 and the recommendations within the report were approved.

 

·         Cabinet has requested that Scrutiny review and comment on the proposals.  The report will be presented to Full Council for approval on 26 February 2018.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Report No. 6/2018 from the Director for Resources was received.

 

The Assistant Director for Finance, Mr Della Rocca introduced the report.  Mr Della Rocca explained that the item was to be considered as part of the budget package and that the substantive debate would be held at the special meeting of the Growth, Infrastructure and Resources Scrutiny Panel to be held on 25 January 2018.

 

Members were informed that the key change was the new Commercial Investment Policy (Appendix 2, Annexe B1 to Report No. 6/2018).  Rutland County Council (RCC) was seeking Cabinet’s recommendation to Council to establish a £10m fund for commercial investments to generate income to contribute towards RCC sustaining the current level of service delivery.  All suitable opportunities would be reviewed by Cabinet/and or Council in accordance with existing Finance Procedure Rules.