Agenda item

Report FSD200022

The Executive considered a report with recommendations for the Council meeting on 24^th February 2020 on the draft budget and Council Tax for 2020/21. The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2020/21 provided the most positive funding proposals for local government since the start of austerity, but there remained uncertainty around funding for 2021/22 and beyond.

The report identified the issues affecting the 2020/21 revenue budget and sought recommendations to Council on the Bromley element of the 2020/21 Council Tax and Adult Social Care precept. Confirmation of the final GLA precept would be reported to the Council meeting on 24^th February 2020. The report also sought approval of the schools budget. 

The Director of Finance tabled proposed amendments to the report setting out the “technical” recommendations and two additional recommendations relating to the Council’s partnership work with Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group.

The report had been scrutinised by the Executive, Resources and Contracts PDS Committee on 5^th February 2020, and the Committee supported the proposals.

RESOLVED that Council be recommended to -

(1)   (a) Approve the schools budget of £79.506m which matches the estimated level of Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) after academy recoupment;

(b)  Approve the draft revenue budgets (as in Appendix 2) for 2020/21 to include the following updated changes:

(i)  minor variation of £27k relating to the collection fund surplus/ collection fund surplus set aside.

  (c)  Agree that Chief Officers identify alternative savings/mitigation within their departmental budgets where it is not possible to realise any savings/mitigation reported to the previous meeting of the Executive held on 15^th January 2020;

  (d)  Approve the following provisions for levies for inclusion in the budget for 2020/21:

   *  Provisional estimate at this stage 

  (e)  Approve a revised Central Contingency sum of £12,666k to reflect the changes in (d);

  (f)  Note that the 2020/21 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 2020/21 revenue budgets to reflect the changes detailed above;

  (h)    Set a 3.99% increase in Bromley’s council tax for 2020/21 compared with 2019/20 (1.99% general increase plus 2% Adult Social Care Precept) and note that, based upon their consultation exercise, the GLA are currently assuming a 3.6% 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 12);

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

  (k)  Executive agrees that the Director of Finance be authorised to report any further changes directly to Council on 24^th February 2020.

(2) Council Tax 2020/21 – Statutory Calculations and Resolutions (as amended by the Localism Act 2011).

  Subject to 2.1 (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 2020/21 Council Tax Referendum Principles, the % increase applied is based on an authority’s “relevant basic amount of Council Tax” (£1,216.26 for Bromley) – see paragraph 6 below.  Any further changes arising from these Principles will be reported directly to Council on 24^th February 2020.

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

1.  It be noted that the Council Tax Base for 2020/21 is 132,026 ‘Band D’ equivalent properties.

2.  Calculate that the Council Tax requirement for the Council’s own purposes for 2020/2021 is £166,983k.

3.  That the following amounts be calculated for the year 2020/21 in accordance with Sections 31 to 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as amended (the Act):

(a)  £543,554k being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 31A(2) of the Act.

(b)  £376,571k being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates or the items set out in Section 31A(3) of the Act.

(c)  £166,983k 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)  £1,264.77 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 2020/21 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 2020/21, 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 2020/21 sets out the principles which the Secretary of State has determined will apply to local authorities in England in 2020/21.  Any further changes arising from these Principles will be reported directly to Council on 24^th February 2020.  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.

(7)  That Council be recommended to set aside a sum of £2m in 2019/20 as an earmarked reserve for transformation funding for health and social care;

(8)  That Council be recommended to set aside a sum of £993k in 2019/20 as an earmarked reserve for health estate development in Bromley.