Agenda item

Report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets, Councillor Peter Jeffries

The Leader explained that Agenda items 5 and 6 would be taken in reverse order, at the request of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets introduced his report, and began by reflecting on the economic challenges the council has faced when setting the budget, which have created additional pressure on savings and efficiencies while costs continue to increase:

-       inflation – reduced from a 40-year high of 11.1% last December to 4.6% in November, but still above the government’s 3% target;

-       the Bank of England base rate now at 5.25%, creating significant pressure on temporary borrowing;

-       energy prices still double what they were pre-2022;

-       government confirmation that our funding and referendum principals on council tax will be below inflation.

Through this turbulence, the council has continued to drive forward its aims and priorities, as set out in the new Corporate Plan, approved in February:

-        making Cheltenham the cyber capital of the UK;

-        our commitment to make our Council and our town net carbon zero by 2030;

-        investment in the sustainable economic growth of the town centre;

-        delivery of more housing across the town;

-        continued support of our most vulnerable communities through the No Child Left Behind initiatives.

He said that this has not been easy and the challenges will undoubtedly continue into the 2024. The latest budget monitoring report for the current year reported a £700,000 overspend against a budget that already had some of the longer-term inflationary pressures built into it, but where last year we had healthy general balances to support the pressures caused by the cost of living emergency, these are finite and our breathing space now sits at £1.4m.

He told Members that the Local Government Provisional Finance Settlement, released the previous day, places greater reliance on local tax generation and our own commerciality to enable us to balance the budget next year.  To do this, we will continue to deliver projects and initiatives which create the savings and efficiencies while delivering core services and our key priorities. Some of these are already in progress – including the process to bring our housing services back in-house, taking informed and realistic decisions about areas of discretionary spend, and developing propositions to generate more commercial income. He said we cannot stop there and need to continue with this work – in particular a detailed review of our environmental services which is the largest area of spend in our budget.

He ended by recommending the budget proposals that allow us to continue to work towards our priorities, whilst protecting our financial sustainability and resilience. If agreed, these will be published for consultation, running until 26 January.

In response to questions, the Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets confirmed that:

-       it is disheartening that Cheltenham is in the bottom 20 councils to receive government funding.  The Local Government Association is lobbying hard against the lack of investment in local authorities across the country, which amounts to about £4billion;

-       priorities for West Cheltenham include young people, jobs and future prosperity, and CBC has committed £140-150m to this project.  The government has recently announced £20m funding for it, approximately one-seventh of the total cost.

RESOLVED THAT:

1.    the interim budget proposals for consultation are approved, including a proposed council tax for the services provided by Cheltenham Borough Council. The proposed Council tax for 2024/25 represents an increase of 2.99% a year for a Band D property, subject to conclusion of the consultation on the Local Government Provisional Finance Settlement;

2.    the schedule of target savings and income generation at Appendix 3 is noted;

3.    the growth proposals at Appendix 4 are approved;

4.    the proposed capital programme at Appendix 6, as outlined in Section 13, is approved;

5.    authority is delegated to the Executive Director Finance, Assets and Regeneration, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets, to determine and approve any additional material that may be needed to support the presentation of the interim budget proposals for public consultation;

6.    consultation responses are sought by 26 January 2024.