5:30pm to 6:00pm
Verbal update and presentation
Minutes:
The Deputy Leader and Director
of Finance and Resources attended to provide an overview of the
budget over the first half of 2017/18 and updated Members on the
budget forecast for the end of 2017/18 and predictions for
2019/20.
The Director advised that there
were 4 months of the financial year remaining however the current
forecast for the end of 2017/18 was a surplus of £443k. The
figure could change slightly as the NNDR1 returns had not yet been
done and Council Tax would not be set until February 2018 however
it was expected that this would see an increase of £5.
Future pressures were being addressed including:
· end of 1% pay freeze next year, trade unions currently negotiating pay increase and 2% had been built into the budget;
· big increases on energy bills due to suppliers increasing the price, having conversations with Nottingham Energies and Schneider over re-negotiating contracts;
· markets income was declining, work was being undertaken at the venues to maximise their income generation;
· spend needed on the old Queen’s Park Sports Centre site and Beetwell Street MSCP;
· declining income from Vicar Lane, reduced rents being charged to encourage shops;
· the 1% reduction a year in housing rents ends in 2 years and there may be an option to increase rents after then.
CBC would remain in the Derbyshire Business Rates pool which brought in £216k more than budgeted however forecasting future income was unpredictable and there may be appeals coming up due to business rate increases which will affect future years’ budgets. The Derbyshire pool had put in a bid to take part in a pilot to receive 100% of business rates, if the bid is successful the pool would get an uplift of £21m resulting in an extra £900k for CBC.
Members asked if setting up a
company to build housing was being considered. The Director replied
that the Executive Director, Michael Rich, had recently given a
presentation to the Corporate Issues Group regarding this.
CBC’s land assets were being looked at as other councils were
using land to build affordable housing for rent or sale in response
to a big push from central government to increase the housing
supply.
The Director advised that all
the savings that had currently been identified were non-pay
related; however, though the increase in income from business rates
had improved the deficits for future years, there was still a
deficit of £828k predicted for 2019/20 which increases
further in 2021/22. The Deputy Leader added that the subsidies to
the sports centres had been reduced and they were now producing
income and making an impact on the health and wellbeing targets. In
addition, a more commercial approach was being taken with the
venues and she believed that if there was a continued commitment
throughout the Council to become more commercial, this would
improve the chances of addressing the deficits in future
years.
The Director advised that the
Housing Revenue Account was in a good position and the balance was
predicted to be £19m at the end of the year. Forecasts for
the next 30 years show the balance remaining consistently above
£6m with all debt being repaid. However, in 3 years’
time another stock condition survey would be undertaken which may
affect the balance.
The Chair thanked the Deputy
Leader and the Director of Finance and Resources for providing the
update and answering their questions.
RESOLVED –
That an update on the Budget Outturn for 2017/18 be brought to the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum in June, 2018.