Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance-TO FOLLOW

RESOLVED THAT

1.    the interim budget proposals be approved for consultation including a proposed council tax for the services provided by Cheltenham Borough Council of £202.12 for the year 2018/19 (an increase of 2.54% or £5.00 a year for a Band D property).

2.    the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and Commercial Strategy outlined in section 3 and Appendix 3 be approved.

3.    the growth proposals, including one off initiatives at Appendix 4, be approved for consultation.

4.    the proposed capital programme at Appendix 6, as outlined in Section 6 be approved.

5.    authority be delegated to the Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance, to determine and approve any additional material that may be needed to support the presentation of the interim budget proposals for consultation.

6.    consultation responses be sought by 19^th January 2018.

On behalf of the Cabinet Member Finance the Leader introduced the report which set out the Cabinet’s interim budget proposals for 2018/19 for consultation. He said that the Cabinet was conscious of the impact of a potential council tax rise but equally conscious of the cost of services. He wished to put on record his thanks to the Chief Finance Officer and his team and all officers across the council. Consultation on the budget proposals would run until 19 January 2018.

The Leader referred to paragraph 4.13 of the MTFS in appendix 3 and reported that a piece of work had been commissioned to obtain analysis from the actuary to explore the cash flow benefit to the council in making the required secondary sum payments to the Local Government Pension Scheme as a pre-payment for future year liability i.e. pay some of the liability up front which impacts on cash flow but does not represent an additional budgetary commitment. Currently monthly contributions were paid to the pension fund, however, if a prepayment of £7.473 million was made, it was anticipated that savings of £100k per annum could be realised over the final two years of the three year actuarial cycle.

He announced that the findings from this analysis have indicated that the savings were double that proposed and equated to a discount of nearly £400k (£200k per annum). In simple terms this translated into a 5.2% return which was significantly more than what was being earned on current investments.

RESOLVED THAT

1.    the interim budget proposals be approved for consultation including a proposed council tax for the services provided by Cheltenham Borough Council of £202.12 for the year 2018/19 (an increase of 2.54% or £5.00 a year for a Band D property).

2.    the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and Commercial Strategy outlined in section 3 and Appendix 3 be approved.

3.    the growth proposals, including one off initiatives at Appendix 4, be approved for consultation.

4.    the proposed capital programme at Appendix 6, as outlined in Section 6 be approved.

5.    authority be delegated to the Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance, to determine and approve any additional material that may be needed to support the presentation of the interim budget proposals for consultation.

6.    consultation responses be sought by 19^th January 2018.