Agenda item

Report FSD18016

The Executive considered a report identifying the final issues affecting the 2018/19 revenue budget and made recommendations to Council on the level of the Bromley element of the 2018/19 Council Tax and Adult Social Care precept. Confirmation of the final GLA precept would be reported to the Council meeting on 26^th February. The report also sought approval of the schools budget. The approach reflected in the report was for the Council to not only achieve a legal and financially balanced budget in 2018/19 but to have measures in place to deal with the medium term financial position (2019/20 to 2021/22.)

The Director of Finance drew the Executive’s attention to the comments of all PDS Committees on the draft budget, which had been circulated, and to a supplementary paper setting out revised recommendations based on the final Local Government settlement announced the day before, including the required technical recommendations.  

RESOLVED that

(1)  Council be recommended to

(a)  Approve the schools budget of £76.771 million which matches the estimated level of Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) after academy recoupment (an increase of £75k);

(b)   Approves the draft revenue budgets (as in Appendix 2 to the report) for 2018/19 to include the following updated change:

(i)  as part of the final settlement, additional one-off funding of £744k was announced through a new Adult Social Care Support Grant.  This sum will be held in the Central Contingency pending the receipt of awaited grant conditions.  The utilisation of this funding will be subject to a further report to Executive.  

  (c)  Agree that Chief Officers identify alternative savings within their departmental budgets where it is not possible to realise any savings reported to the previous meeting of the Executive held on 10^th January 2018;

  (d)  Approve the following provisions for levies for inclusion in the budget for 2018/19:

  *provisional estimate - awaiting final allocations 

  (e)  Approve a revised Central Contingency sum of £14,899k to reflect the changes in (b) and (d);

  (f)  Note that the 2018/19 Central Contingency sum includes significant costs not yet allocated and there will therefore be further changes to reflect allocations to individual Portfolio budgets prior to publication of the Financial Control Budget;

  (g)  Approve the revised draft 2018/19 revenue budgets to reflect the changes detailed above;

  (h)    Set a 3.99% increase in Bromley’s council tax for 2018/19 compared with 2017/18 (1.99% general increase plus 2% Adult Social Care Precept) and notes that, based upon their consultation exercise, the GLA are currently assuming a 5.1% increase in the GLA precept;

    (i)  Note the latest position on the GLA precept, as above, which will be finalised in the overall Council Tax figure to be reported to full Council (see section 11 of the report);

  (j)  Approve the approach to reserves outlined by the Director of Finance (see Appendix 4 to the report);

  (k)  Executive agrees that the Director of Finance be authorised to report any further changes directly to Council on 26^th February 2018.

(2)  Council Tax 2018/19 – Statutory Calculations and Resolutions (as amended by the Localism Act 2011).

  Subject to 1 (a) to (k) above, if the formal Council Tax Resolution as detailed below is approved, the total Band D Council Tax will be as follows:

* The GLA Precept may need to be amended once the actual GLA budget is set.

(#)  in line with the 2018/19 Council Tax Referendum Principles, the % increase applied is based on an authority’s “relevant basic amount of Council Tax” (£1,114.02 for Bromley) – see paragraph 6 below.  Any further changes arising from these Principles will be reported directly to Council on 26^th February 2018.

(3)  Council be recommended to formally resolve as follows:

1.  It be noted that the Council Tax Base for 2018/19 is 130,004 ‘Band D’ equivalent properties.

2.  Calculate that the Council Tax requirement for the Council’s own purposes for 2018/19 is £150,607k.

3.  That the following amounts be calculated for the year 2018/19 in accordance with Sections 31 to 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as amended (the Act):

(a)  £529,211k being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 31A(2) of the Act.

(b)  £378,604k being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates or the items set out in Section 31A(3) of the Act.

(c)  £150,607k being the amount by which the aggregate at 3(a) above exceeds the aggregate at 3(b) above, calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 31A(4) of the Act as its Council Tax requirement for the year.

(d)  £1,158.48 being the amount at 3(c) above, divided by (1) above, calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 31B of the Act, as the basic amount of its Council Tax for the year. 

4.  To note that the Greater London Authority (GLA) has issued a precept to the Council in accordance with Section 40 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 for each category of dwellings in the Council’s area as indicated in the table below (NB. the GLA precept figure may need to be amended once the actual GLA budget is set).

5.  That the Council, in accordance with Sections 30 and 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, hereby sets the aggregate amounts shown in the table below as the amounts of Council Tax for 2018/19 for each part of its area and for each of the categories of dwellings.

6.  That the Council hereby determines that its relevant basic amount of council tax for the financial year 2018/19, which reflects a 3.99% increase (including Adult Social Care Precept of 2%), is not excessive.  The Referendums Relating to Council Tax Increases (Principles) (England) Report 2018/19 sets out the principles which the Secretary of State has determined will apply to local authorities in England in 2018/19.  Any further changes arising from these Principles will be reported directly to Council on 26^th February 2018. The Council is required to determine whether its relevant basic amount of Council Tax is excessive in accordance with the principles approved under Section 52ZB of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.