Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

Report of the Interim Chief Executive (Section 151 Officer)

The Cabinet considered a report of the Interim Chief Executive (Section 151 Officer) which calculated the Council Tax level for 2023/23 and made appropriate recommendations to Council, consistent with the Budget Report 2023/24. 

The report calculated the Council Tax level for 2023/24 and made appropriate recommendations to Council, consistent with the Budget Report 2023/24 on the same agenda.  The report recommended a 4.9% increase in the City’s Council Tax.  Some figures and information detailed within the report were necessarily provisional due to precepts from the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Fire and Rescue Authority having not been confirmed at the time of publication.  These figures were shaded in grey within the report and were confirmed as final figures at the meeting.

The report incorporated the impact of the Council's gross expenditure and the level of income it would receive through Business Rates, grants, and fees and charges. This resulted in a Council Tax requirement, as the amount that its expenditure exceeded all other sources of income.

The report included a calculation of the Band D Council Tax that would be needed to generate this Council Tax requirement, based on the City's approved Council Tax base.  The 2023/24 Band D Council Tax that was calculated through this process had increased by £89.99 from the 2022/23 level.

Each year the Government determined the maximum Council Tax increases that local authorities could set without triggering a referendum.  For 2023/24 the Secretary of State had published a report which proposed that the rise in Coventry City Council’s Council Tax must be below 5% in 2023/24 to avoid triggering a referendum, comprising a 2% precept for expenditure on adult social care and a maximum of 3% for other expenditure.  At the time of writing the Secretary of State’s report was subject to parliamentary approval.  The recommendations within the Budget Report 2023/24 were based on a proposed increase in Council Tax of 4.9%, incorporating a core Council Tax rise of 2.9% and a 2% Adult Social Care Precept.

Members noted that the recommendations followed the structure of resolutions drawn up by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, to ensure that legal requirements were fully adhered to in setting the tax. As a consequence, the wording of the proposed resolutions was necessarily complex.

As it was his final meeting before leaving the authority, the Cabinet requested that their appreciation be placed on record to Paul Jennings, Finance Manager, for the work he had undertaken in relation to budget setting proposals over a number of years. 

RESOLVED that, the Cabinet recommend that Council:

1.  Notes the following Council Tax base amounts for the year 2023/24, as approved by Cabinet on 10 January 2023, in accordance with Regulations made under Section 31B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 ("the Act"):

a)  86,075.2 being the amount calculated by the Council as its Council Tax base for the year for the whole Council area:

b)  Allesley  387.5

  Finham  1,549.4

  Keresley  369.8

being the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 96.

Report of the Interim Chief Executive (Section 151 Officer)

The Cabinet considered a report of the Interim Chief Executive (Section 151 Officer) which set out the proposals for the Council’s final revenue and capital budget for 2023/24.

The report followed on from the Pre-Budget Report approved by Cabinet on 13th December 2022 (minute 64/22 referred), which had since been subject to a period of public consultation. The proposals within the report now formed the basis of the Council's final revenue and capital budget for 2023/24 incorporating the following details:

·  Gross budgeted spend of £812m (£63m or 8% higher than 2022/23).

·  Net budgeted spend of £261m (£23m or 10% higher than 2022/23) funded from Council Tax and Business Rates less a tariff payment of £20.5m due to Government.

·  A Council Tax Requirement of £164.4m (£11.0m or 7% higher than 2022/23), reflecting a City Council Tax increase of 4.9% detailed in the separate Council Tax Setting report on today’s agenda.

·  A number of new expenditure pressures, policy priority proposals and technical savings proposals.

·  A Capital Strategy including a Capital Programme of £159.2m including expenditure funded by Prudential Borrowing of £19.6m.

·  An updated Treasury Management Strategy, Capital Strategy and a Commercial Investments Strategy.

The financial position in this Budget Report was based on the Final 2023/24 Local Government Finance Settlement. The Settlement included some variations to the core position and specific grant allocations received in 2022/23 which provided some additional resources to help the Council manage the pressures it faced, in particular in relation to social care and the wider costs of inflation. The position after 2023/24 remained uncertain despite the Government’s medium-term spending plans being set out in the Autumn Statement published in November 2022. Reviews in relation to the local government financial allocation model and Business Rates retention were not now expected within the current parliament and would therefore not be in place for 2024/25 Budget Setting. The overall local government settlement for 2024/25 was expected to broadly mirror the 2024/25 position but had not been set out at an individual authority level. As a result, it was impossible to provide a robust medium term financial forecast at this stage and the Council had instead made some planning estimates for future years. Initial assumptions indicated the likelihood that there would be a substantial gap for the period following 2023/24. The view of the Interim Chief Executive (Section 151 Officer) was that the Council should be planning for such a position.

The Pre-Budget Report was based on an increase in Council Tax of 4.9% and this position had been maintained for the final proposals in this report. This incorporated an increase of 2.9%, which was within the Government’s limit of 3% above which a referendum would need to be held plus a further 2% Adult Social Care (ASC) Precept line with Government expectations. The Precept was trailed in the Autumn Statement 2022 and included in the Local Government Settlement as the means for councils to maintain their “core spending power”. The precept was essential to enable councils including Coventry to manage  ...  view the full minutes text for item 97.

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

There were no other items of public business.