Decision details

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet recommends to Council that it:

1) Notes the details of the Autumn Statement 2023 and Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement as outlined in sections 4.3 and 4.4 of the report;

2) Notes the Government’s expectations about Council Tax levels for 2024-25 in section 4.5 of the report;

3) Approves the precepts as outlined in section 4.5 and Appendix Four of the report;

4) Approves that billing authorities are informed of Council Tax levels arising from the budget proposals as outlined in section 4.5 and Appendix Four of the report;

5) Approves the contingency to cover non-standard inflation as outlined in section 4.7 of the report, and the contingency be allocated by the Director of Finance & ICT, as S151 Officer, once non-standard inflation has been agreed;

6) Approves the service pressure items identified in section 4.8 and Appendix Five of the report;

7) Approves the increase to budgets for undeliverable prior year savings proposals as outlined in section 4.9 of the report;

8) Approves the level and allocation of budget savings as outlined in section 4.10 and Appendix Six of the report;

9) Notes the comments of the Director of Finance & ICT, as S151 Officer, about the robustness of the estimates and adequacy of the reserves as outlined in section 4.11 of the report;

10) Notes the details of the Council’s consultation activity as outlined in section 5 of the report;

11) Approves the Council Tax requirement of £410,111,128 which is calculated as follows:

£

12) Approves the use of the Revenue Contributions to the Capital Expenditure Earmarked Reserve to provide one-off support to the 2024-25 Revenue Budget; and

13) Authorises the Director of Finance & ICT, as S151 Officer, to allocate cash limits amongst Cabinet portfolios and the Executive Directors will then report to Cabinet on the revised Service Plans for 2024-25.