Issue - meetings

1.      That the assumptions set out in respect of Government funding, council tax, inflation rates and fees and charges (set out in full in section 13 of report CAB3522) and the projections set out in Appendix 1 of the report be noted.

2.      That the Medium-Term Financial Strategy be approved as set out in sections 13 to 17 of the report. 

3.      That the following one-off revenue budget growth requests be approved;

            i.       An additional £0.3m revenue budget, funded by the transitional reserve, towards the Community Governance Review.

          ii.        A revenue budget of £2.280m, funded by the transitional reserve, towards the Local Government Review.

         iii.       A revenue budget of £0.03m in 2025/26, to be funded by higher than budgeted Parking income, towards additional Parking Enforcement overtime costs.

         iv.       A revenue budget of £0.05m in 2025/26, funded by the property reserve, for fees to design and plan works to the Guildhall.

4.      That a detailed budget be prepared for consideration by Council in February 2026 based on the assumptions set out in this MTFS; final spending review announcements; and including the following options shown in Appendix 2 and Section 14 of the report:

a.         That, in relation to services:

                             i.    Forecast increase in utility costs of £0.15m per annum.

                            ii.     Forecast annual savings of £0.3m per annum due to a reduction in the employer’s pension scheme contribution from 18.0% to 15.9%.

                           iii.    An additional baseline £0.115m revenue budget for the permanent recruitment of a Corporate Head of Resources.

b.         That, in relation to other annual budgets:

                             i.    Forecast increase in democratic costs of £0.085m

                            ii.     Increase in garage maintenance budgets of £0.120m per annum.

c.          In relation to management of the council’s property assets:

                             i.    An additional £400,000 per annum be set aside into the Property Reserve for the maintenance of and investment in operational assets.

                            ii.     An additional £100,000 per annum baseline revenue budget, for new requirements highlighted by the latest Asset Management plan and uplifts to existing maintenance budgets.

5.      That the following regarding Car Parking fees from October 2026 be approved:

a.      Freeze on park and walk and market town car park fees

b.      CPI increase to all central parking and overnight charges, generating an additional £150,000 per annum (£85,000 in 2026/27)

6.      That a capital budget of £100,000 be approved, funded by the Homelessness risk reserve, for the conversion of Stable Yard, to the rear of 59 Colebrook St, for temporary accommodation. This is subject to a business case and subsequent approval of expenditure under Financial Procedure Rule 7.4.

RECOMMENDATION

It is recommended that the committee scrutinise and comment on the proposals within the attached draft cabinet report, ref CAB3522 which is to be considered by cabinet at its meeting on the 19 November 2025.

Councillor Neil Cutler, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Transformation introduced the report. The introduction included the following points:

1. The Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and budget options paper showed a balanced budget for the next two years, with a relatively small deficit in the years that followed.
2. The full detail of Fair Funding Review 2.0 was expected before the end of the year, with the most significant element being the rebasing of business rates, which would create a significant reduction in the council’s revenue.
3. The food waste payment was budgeted at 80% of the full cost, as government confirmation of full funding was still pending.
4. Income from extended producer responsibility came in at £1.6 million, which was higher than the budgeted figure of £800,000.
5. The paper included one-off expenditures for Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) implementation, estimated at over £2 million, and for the community governance review.
6. Savings from the TC25 programme had reached over £1.6 million off the base budget, and the transformation team would now be concentrating on LGR rather than further TC25 savings.

Liz Keys, Director (Finance), provided a further introduction which included the following points:

1. The MTFS showed a more positive and stable financial position for the council compared to previous years.
2. That fewer budget options were presented this year because the move towards LGR resulted in a shorter long-term planning horizon.
3. The report sets out the key assumptions that were being made in preparing the budget for February.

Councillor Danny Lee addressed the committee and raised several points, which could be summarised as follows. He suggested presenting the financial forecasts with best, central, and worst-case scenarios to reflect uncertainties. He asked for clarification on which specific grants were affected by the TC25 community grants reduction and sought a “best-guess” estimate for the costs of LGR.

He also enquired whether a provision for legal and valuation costs related to asset transfers under LGR should be included. Further questions were raised regarding the pattern of rental income risk, whether a contingency for the River Park Pavilion project should be included in the MTFS, and whether the council could be more ambitious with an accelerated solar energy programme.

The committee was asked to scrutinise and comment on the proposals within the attached draft cabinet report, ref CAB3522, which was to be considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on 19 November. The committee proceeded to ask questions and debate the report. In summary, the following matters were raised.

1. Clarification was sought on the garage maintenance budget, including whether it applied to garages owned by the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and its overall cost-effectiveness.
2. A question was asked as to why an increase in garage rental income was classified as a TC25 transformational change and what other income increases were counted in this way.
3. Further detail was requested regarding the planned use of the additional £400,000 for the maintenance and investment in operational assets.
4. A question was raised about how businesses  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6