Agenda item

The Committee was presented with a draft budget for 2023/24 and a medium-term financial strategy to 2024/25. The draft budget had been prepared based on a ‘neutral scenario’, which assumed the same level of funding as 2022/23, with reductions in government support offset by increases in Council Tax and, potentially, business rates income. The position would be clarified by the provisional local government finance settlement expected later in the month. At this stage, a budget gap of £0.25m remained. Although the savings plan was broadly unchanged since the previous meeting, budget pressures had increased from £1.7m to £1.9m, primarily due to inflation and concerns regarding the delivery of budgeted fee income. Therefore, unless external funding increased, further savings would be required to balance the budget, the final version of which would be submitted to Full Council on 9th February 2023 following further consideration by policy committees in January.

The draft budget report included commentary on funding assumptions, with reference to anticipated future Government reforms; the gross Council Tax base for 2023/24; and collection fund performance. A Council Tax increase of £5 (2.2%) for households in Band D properties had been assumed, notwithstanding the Government’s recent decision to raise the District Council ceiling for such increases to 3%. The report also confirmed the need to augment reserves (in the context of the CIPFA resilience index) and the intention to resubmit a capitalisation request to the Government for this purpose.

The following updates were provided on the Future Tandridge Programme which underpinned the draft budget:

·     the progress of service reviews and a proposed savings plan for 2022/23 and 2023/24;

·     business cases for the future delivery of ‘communications’ and ‘assets & facilities management’ services

·     the ‘operations, locality and waste services’ and ‘digital / customer services’ workstreams.

In response to the debate, the Chief Finance Officer confirmed that efforts had focused on developing tailored, achievable saving targets for each service area, as examined at the various Member workshops during the previous month. However, it was accepted that the service reviews and associated business cases were at varying stages of progress. This prompted discussion about the wording of Recommendation C to the report. Some Members said they were unhappy to "approve" the business cases, but would accept "to note". The Chair and Leader made it very clear that, although the business cases had reached different levels of maturity, simply noting them would not provide the required foundation on which TDC could base the 2023/24 budget. They added that, having had the opportunity via the workshops for Members to comment and contribute to these business cases, it was now unacceptable to consider them as not fit for purpose. The discussion concluded with the Chair proposing wording for an amendment which Councillors Botten and Caulcott developed, the result then being seconded by Councillor Pursehouse: 

“Approve the following business cases and updates to form the basis of the budgets to be finalised during the January 2023 committee cycle …”      

Upon being put to the vote, this amendment was agreed. Other issues raised by Members during the debate included:

·         the need to assess the impact of emerging savings plans upon staff and residents

·         a desire to explore the potential for partnership initiatives with Parish Councils to mitigate the impact of savings which the District Council would have to make

·         arguments for and against the case for generating additional income from parking charges.

            R E S O L V E D – that:

A.     the draft budget for 2023/24 and medium-term financial strategy to 2024/25, set out in Appendix A to the report (to form the basis of reports to Committees in January 2023) be approved;

B.     the gross Council Tax Base for 2023/24, determined at 39,377.5 after taking account of the Council’s agreed Council Tax Support Scheme, and the net Council Tax Base for 2023/24, be determined at 38,904.9 after adjustment by 1.2% to allow for irrecoverable amounts, appeals and property base changes, be approved;

C.     the following be approved to form the basis of the budgets to be finalised during the January 2023 committee cycle:

1.      the ‘communications’ business case which sets out the proposed new structure of the communications service and provides an update on future operating models being pursued by the service in consultation with Members (set out in Appendix D to the report)

2.      the ‘assets & facilities management’ business case which recommends an integrated property service delivery model, corporate landlord approach and provides an update on the recent strategic asset review and details how this will be taken forward (set out in Appendix E to the report)

3.      the direction of travel for the operations and localities service review, as provided to the Community Services Committee on 18^th October 2022 and updated in Appendix F to the report)

4.      the updated direction of travel for digital transformation (set out in Appendix G to the report)

5.      the overall savings plan (set out in section 7 and Appendix B to the report) noting that further consideration may be required pending the local government finance settlement;

D.     the progress to date on delivering the Future Tandridge Programme, the direction of travel for the service reviews and associated savings targets included in section 7 and Appendix C to the report, be noted;

E.     it be noted that Officers will continue to update their business cases where these are required to achieve the target savings and will bring these for Committee approval where necessary over the coming months;

F.     the intention to re-submit the request for a capitalisation direction (from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) to use the part of the receipt from the Redstone House property to replenish general fund reserves, be noted.