Issue - meetings

Background:

This report provided details of the provisional local government settlement that had been announced, via a written statement on 19 December 2023.

The report explained that the Council Tax referendum limit had been set at 3%, which was in addition to an Adult Social Care precept, which provided the flexibility to relevant local authorities to increase Council Tax by a further 2% above the referendum limit. Medway’s Draft Budget had reflected this and had assumed a 4.994% uplift.

Concerning business rates, the report explained that the Autumn Statement had made a series of announcements to help businesses, and the Provisional Settlement confirmed that the impact of these measures would be funded by the Government.

The report also provided details of the impact on other grants, set out at sections 9 to 13 of the report, all of which resulted in a net reduction in resources of £1.699million to that reflected in Medway’s draft budget.

Reasons:

The provisional levels of funding announced are a fundamental component of the 2024/25 budget, and their announcement is a further stage in the process to prepare a balanced budget for the coming financial year.