Agenda item

The purpose of the report is for this Committee to consider and recommend its 2024/25 revenue budget revenue budget, which will be submitted to the Policy and Finance Committee on 8 February 2024. The Policy and Finance Committee will consider the overall revenue budget for 2024/25 so that it can make recommendations to a Special Meeting of the Council on 21 February 2024 and set level of Council Tax for the District for 2024/25.

The Chair invited the Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer to present the report to the Committee.  The report recommended this Committee’s General Fund Revenue Budget for 2024/25 to the Policy and Finance Committee on 8 February 2024, as part of the Council’s overall revenue and capital budget.  He referred to Appendix A that set out the budget proposals, equating to a total budget of £1,094million.  The net budget increase of £188k from 2023-24 compared to 2024-25 was detailed in paragraph 4.4 of the report.   He explained that the increase was mainly due to the reduction in Planning Fee Income to reflect the fall in volumes.  He hoped that officers had been overcautious in their calculations following the Government having increased the level of Planning fees during December 2023.

The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer said that whilst he expected that member may have questions on some elements of the budget, he explained that if any amendments were made to increase the total budget for the Committee, they would create additional financial pressure on the Council’s revenue reserves.

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Yeates and seconded by Councillor Tandy. 

The Chair then invited questions and comments from members.  A member sought clarification of any impact the savings of £107k identified at Paragraph 4.5 of the report, would have on the Planning Policy Service and how that workload was being managed.   The Group Head of Planning explained that the Principal Planning Officer and Senior Planning Officer posts had been vacant for some time.  He reminded members that the Committee had considered a report at its meeting held on 21 September 2023, concerning the recommencing of the Local Plan process, which included the commissioning of consultant support over a number of years.  The sum of money required to fund consultants would outstrip the savings in the budget over a few years in the long term.  In the short term the vacant posts in the Planning Policy Team would be filled by a consultant to assist the delivery of the Local Plan, so that the Team was not under resourced during this time.  The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer undertook to confirm the budget of £137k in respect of Professional Fees was allocated within Supplies and Services. 

A non-member of the committee was allowed to comment and ask questions. Clarification was sought around the financial figures for the Local Plan update. 

Continuing the discussion, assurance was sought that the proposed budget could be delivered without affecting service provision.  The Director of Growth and Interim Chief Executive reminded the Committee that it had agreed to renew the Local Plan principally with support from consultants, for which a budget was in place within the Services and Supplies account.  The Planning Policy Team was currently working around the two vacancies.  However, during the renewal of the Local Plan the Team will have a commissioning role and will utilise the consultants to carry out a lot of the core work.  He advised that whilst the increased workload would not fundamentally have an impact on officers’ current workload, they would need to look at the frequency certain reports were brought to the Committee.

The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer undertook to provide the same breakdown of the Supplies and Services Revenue Budget for 2024-25 to Councillors’ Elkins and Gunner, that had previously been provided to the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Committee in response to their own questions.  He asked that members submit their questions in advance of the meeting so that he could answer them in a timely manner. 

          The Committee

                     RESOLVED that it

(a)   Agrees the 2024/25 Revenue Budget as illustrated in Appendix A of this report; and

RECOMMENDS TO POLICY AND FINANCE COMMITTEE THAT

(b)   The Revenue Budget for this Committee be included in the overall General Fund Budget when the Policy and Finance Committee considers the overall budgets at its meeting on 8 February 2024.