Agenda item

The purpose of the report is for this Committee to consider and recommend its revenue budget for inclusion in the 2023/24 revenue budget, which will be submitted to the Policy and Finance Committee on 9 February 2023.

The Interim Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer introduced the report and advised members that this was the second year of preparing the budget under the committee style of governance system.  The budgets from this committee plus any growth bids would be considered at the Policy and Finance Committee as part of the overall budget on 9 February 2023 before being considered at Full Council on 1 March 2023 for approval.  This committee being responsible for the General Fund and HRA.

Starting with the General Fund, it should be noted that the budget had been prepared against a backdrop of a significant budget gap for 2023/24.  Only essential growth bids for 2023/24 had been put forward for the committee to approve.  The growth bids listed in appendix B totalling £730k were: Support for Leisure Operator £580k (£265k current year); Events £100k and an Events Officer £50k.

The main year on year changes were: The most significant increase was in the net cost of Homelessness.  The net budget had increased to £2m from £810k, which was an increase of £1.19m. Leisure contract contribution had increased by £121k – however, this had to be seen in light of the bid for £580k (£265k current year) Housing Benefit had increased by £127k.  This was mainly due to assisted accommodation which attracted lower level of Housing Benefit and the move to Universal Credit

The Chair invited comments from the committee regarding the general fund where comments were made regarding funding support for the Leisure Operator and it was confirmed that an additional report on that topic would be brought to the committee at a later date. A short discussion regarding the success of recent events over the Christmas period was also had.

Turning to HRA, the revised budget for the HRA for 2022/23 was approved at Full Council on 18 January 2023. It approved changes to accounting policies had been reflected in the projected HRA balance in paragraph 3.15 which showed the HRA balance improving steadily, and it would reach a balance of £2m by 2027/28. The projected improvement in the HRA balance was a result of the delivery of savings as part of a recovery plan to address the growing revenue costs of repairs and supervision and management costs as well as changes in accounting policies mentioned previously. The budget for next year assumed a 7% increase in rent levels resulting in an average rent level of £102.34 per week. The capital programme shown in appendix E. Shows the budget reflected the £3m match funding for decarbonisation programme and £1.6m for the first part of the sheltered housing improvement scheme.

          The Chair then invited questions and comments on the HRA where more information was sought in relation to paragraph 3.9 where it referred to savings and what sought of savings would the council be expecting to receive. The Head of Housing explained that a lot is spent on emergency accommodation, however the councils recovery of funds for that income is low there was scope for this to be improved this considerably. The Chair then asked if there was a timeline for when the council would be on track with this improvement, and it was confirmed that 6-9 months should be enough time to see some improvements implemented. She then requested that the Head of Housing work with members to identify those improvement metrics that can be benchmarked against other authorities. It was agreed that an update report would be brought back to committee in 3 months’ time. 

The recommendations were then proposed by Councillor Gregory and seconded by Councillor Needs

The Committee

          RESOLVED 

(a) Agree on the 2023/24 Revenue Budget as illustrated in Appendix A of this report;

(b) Agree on the list of uncommitted growth items as illustrated in Appendix B of Page 39 Agenda Item 9 this report;

(c) Agree on the 2023/24 HRA Revenue Budget set out in Appendix C of this report;

(d) Recommends to allow the HRA Balance to remain below the minimum level of £2.0m for the period 2023/24 to 2026/27 to enable the realisation of savings in Repairs and Supervision & Management expenditure to deliver a sustainable HRA;

(e) Recommends HRA rents for 2023/24 are increased by 7.0% in accordance with the provisions of the rent standard

(f) Recommends that HRA garage rents are increased by 7% to give an average rent of £14.50 per week (excluding VAT) and heating and water/sewerage charges be increased on a scheme-by-scheme basis, with the aim of balancing costs with income;

(g) Agree on the 2023/24 General Fund Capital Programme as illustrated in Appendix D of this report;

(h) Agree on the 2023/24 HRA Capital Programme as illustrated in Appendix E of this report; and

recommend to Policy and Finance Committee

(i) that the General Fund Revenue Budget, list of growth items, General Fund Capital Programme, HRA Revenue Budget and HRA Capital Programme be included in the overall General Fund Budget when considering the overall budgets on 9 February 2023

Before moving on to the next agenda item the Chair took the opportunity to thank the Interim Group head of Finance and Section 151 Officer who was leaving Arun District Council at the end of February 2023. She thanked her for the support she has given to members over the years that would be missed and wished he luck with her new role at another authority.