Issue - meetings

Members considered a report and a presentation by the Section 151 Officer on the proposed budget for 2023/24, for the General Fund, Housing Revenue Account and Capital Programme, as part of the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan, covering the years 2023/24 – 2026/27. 

The report included details regarding revenue and capital expenditure, the General Fund, Council Tax and the Housing Revenue Account.

A brief explanation of the budgets was provided as follows:-

·                Revenue & Capital Budgets

The revenue budget was the amount spent on the day-to-day running of the Council’s services, e.g. salaries, property and transport running costs and payments to suppliers for goods and services.  It also included the borrowing costs of money spent on capital assets.

Capital spending was mainly for buying, constructing or improving physical assets such as buildings, land vehicles, plant or equipment.

·                Housing Revenue Account

Councils with more than 50 properties were required to maintain a separate account that contained all the income and expenditure necessary to manage and maintain the housing stock.  This account was ring-fenced and must be kept separate from the General Fund.

·                General Fund

The largest sources of income were Business Rates and Council Tax.  Income was also generated from fees and charges.  The main cost to the General Fund was salaries.

A brief explanation of the proposed General Fund revenue budget was provided for each of the next four years.  It was noted that following a robust budget process, a balanced budget had been achieved for each year.

The Government had announced the one year provisional settlement on the 19^th December 2022, however, no mention had been made of the Fair Funding Review or detail in relation to the New Homes Bonus or the Business Rates reset.

The budget figures for the NNDR Growth Protection Reserve had been estimated as the actual income figure was not known for the year.  Recently other Government funding had been placed in the reserve to cover any unplanned budget changes.  Based on current estimates, funding would remain in the reserve to be used in 2027/28.

The Government had limited the amount of Council Tax that could be achieved to the greater of 3% or £5.  As the limit had been increased by 1% on last year’s figure, it was thought to be more beneficial to raise the level of Council Tax by 2.99% in order to ensure that the Council would not unintentionally trigger a referendum by going over 3%.  The level of increase each year affected the base for future years and the proposed increase for 2023/24 was 2.99% which was £5.72 at Band D.

The Section 151 Officer provided a brief explanation of the Housing Revenue Account and highlighted that the main source of income was from the rent of properties.  Accounting regulations meant that a charge was made for depreciation of the Council’s housing stock each year and this was used to fund some of the capital work required to properties.

The Council had been allowed an annual rent increase of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57