Agenda and draft minutes

To receive apologies.

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillor Duncan McGregor of the Committee and invited to observe Councillors Justin Gilbody and Duncan Haywood.

There was no urgent business to be considered at the meeting.

 There were no declarations made at the meeting.

Moved by Councillor Sally Renshaw and seconded by Councillor Steve Fritchley

RESOLVED that the minutes of a meeting of the Finance and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 27^th November 2025 be approved as a true and correct record.

The Committee considered the updated List of Key Decisions and Items to be Considered in Private.

A clarification was sought on Revenue Expenditure.

RESOLVED that the updated List of Key Decisions and Items to be considered in Private in the additional document be noted.

The Section 151 Officer presented the report and accompanying presentation to the Committee to enable consideration of the current budget for 2025/26 and the proposed budget 2026/27 for the General Fund (GF), Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and Capital Programme (CP) as part of the Council’s Medium-Term Financial Plan covering the years 2025/26 to 2029/30.

The GF was attached at Appendixes 1 and 2, the HRA was at Appendixes 3 and 4, and the CP was attached at Appendix 5.

Any recommendations agreed by the Committee and Executive would be referred to Council at its meeting on 28^th January 2026.

The Council had agreed a budget for 2025/26 to determine Council Tax and had showed a balanced budget with neither a surplus nor deficit.  Budgets had been actively managed with savings removed from the budget once agreed.

The Revised Budget was considered by the Committee on 27^th November 2025 and Executive on 1^st December 2025 – there had been no material changes since.

The final in-year position would be dependent on the actual financial performance out-turning in line with the revised budgets – there might be further costs and / or savings identified before end of March 2026.

The proposed budget for 2026/27 was balanced with a transfer to the National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) Growth Protection Reserve of £1.030m. Estimates for future years transferred into the reserve were: 2027/28 £0.846m; and 2028/29 £0.782m.

It was estimated in 2029/30 there would be a shortfall in funding, with a transfer back to the GF of £3.643m.  This reserve was detailed in the report.

Table 1 detailed the following update figures resulting from the budget process:

The main factors taken into account when developing the Council’s financial plans were set out in the report and included: the Level of Government Funding; Council Tax; New Homes Bonus; Business Rates Baseline Reset; Derbyshire Business Rates Pool; Revenue Support Grant; Recovery Grant; Transitional Arrangements – Blending current and proposed funding shares; Transitional Arrangements – Funding Floors; and Extended Producer Responsibility.

To mitigate losses expected to be caused by future funding changes, the Council had set up the NNDR Growth Protection Reserve – the balance to have been accumulated in this reserve was expected on 31^st March 2026 to be £16.9m.

However, changes announced in the Policy Statement November 2025 had made a significant difference to the actual funding (now the detail had been received in the provisional settlement).

Some local authorities had lost significant funding because of  ...  view the full minutes text for item FCO29-25/26

The Section 151 Officer presented the report to the Committee to enable consideration of the Council’s suite of Treasury Strategies for 2026/27 to 2029/30, prior to the report being taken to Council.

Treasury risk management at the Council was conducted within the framework of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy’s Treasury Management in the Public Services: Code of Practice 2021 Edition (the CIPFA

Code) which required the Council to approve a treasury management strategy before the start of each financial year – the report fulfilled this legal obligation under the Local Government Act 2003 (to have regard to the CIPFA Code).

Since 2019/20 there had been a requirement to produce 3 separate treasury strategies – the report included the strategy for Treasury Management, The Capital Strategy and the Corporate Investment Strategy.

Prudential indicators, aimed at monitoring risk, were attached at Appendix 1.

The Capital Strategy was intended to be a high level, concise overview of how capital expenditure, capital financing and treasury management activity contributed to the provision of the Council’s services.  The report also provided an overview of the associated risk, its management and the implications for future financial sustainability.

The Capital Strategy set out the capital expenditure plans for the period and how they would be financed.  It also provided information of the minimum revenue provision, capital financing requirement and prudential indicators aimed at monitoring risk (attached at Appendix 2).

The Corporate Investment Strategy focused on investments made for service purposes and commercial reasons, rather than those made for treasury management.  Investments covered by this strategy included earning investment income through commercial investments or by supporting local services by lending to, or buying shares in, other organisations (attached at Appendix 3).

Moved by Councillor Sally Renshaw and seconded by Councillor David Bennett

RESOLVED that Finance and Corporate Overview Scrutiny Committee note the report and make any comments that they believe to be appropriate to be given verbally at     the Council meeting on 28^th of January 2026.

The Scrutiny Officer presented the Work Programme 2025/26 to the Committee, which was attached at Appendix 1.

It was reiterated from the previous meeting that the Committee’s Work Programme 2026/27 had been brought forward to March 2026 at the request of the Chair to permit additional time for review work consideration.

It was asked if Executive could present reports on items such as growth and housing to the Committee.  It was offered a standing agenda item could be provided to accommodate such a request.

RESOLVED that Members review this report and the Programme attached at Appendix 1 for approval and amendment as required. All Members are advised to contact the Scrutiny Officer should they have any queries regarding future meetings.