Agenda item

Background:

This report presented proposals for the capital and revenue budgets for 2013/2014. The Cabinet had considered initial budget proposals on 27 November 2012, which had been developed in accordance with the principles set out in the Medium Term Financial Plan 2013/2016, and table 10 of the report summarised the budget changes since then.

The implications of the Local Government Finance Settlement were set out in the report. This highlighted that Medway’s Start-up Funding Assessment, which now replaced the Formula Grant, was calculated as £105.430 million and represented a decrease of £3.65% over the equivalent adjusted sum for 2012/2013 with a further decrease of 8.6% for 2014/2015.

The proposed revenue budget of £348.511 million was based on a Council Tax increase of 1.99%. It was noted that considerable effort had been made to achieve a balanced budget without seriously impacting on direct services to the public.

It was reported that proposals to leave national conditions for staff pay and allowances were ongoing and the result of these negotiations would be reported to the Employment Matters Committee on 19 February 2013 and be reported to Council on 21 February 2013.

The proposed capital programme for 2013/2014, incorporating existing schemes and new funding announcements to date, was £48.224 million. An overall summary and a summary by directorate of the proposed capital programme were attached at Appendix 2 to the report.

The report explained that the Council Plan had been developed alongside the budget setting process to ensure the link between resource and business planning was maintained. The Council Plan was considered as a separate item on the agenda.

It was noted that budget proposals had been referred to all the Overview and Scrutiny Committees for consideration. The Overview and Scrutiny Committees’ views were detailed in the report, with the recommendations of the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee set out for Cabinet consideration.

The summarised Housing Revenue Account was set out in Appendix 4 to the report with the capital component in Appendix 2 to the report. A report setting out details of proposed rents for 2013/2014 was considered as a separate item on the agenda. The schedule of fees and charges was attached at Appendix 5 to the report.

The report set out the requirements under equality legislation and a Diversity Impact Assessment, that aggregated the impact of reductions in funding to services, was attached at Appendix 6 to the report.

The Cabinet agreed to consider this report as an urgent item to enable its recommendations to be forwarded to the Budget Council meeting on 21 February 2013.

Reasons:

The Constitution requires that Cabinet’s budget proposals must be forwarded to Council for consideration and approval.

The Council is required by statute to set a budget and council tax levels by 11 March each year.