Agenda and minutes

Venue: Civic Suite, North Warehouse, The Docks, Gloucester, GL1 2EP. View directions

Contact: Democratic and Electoral Services 

Items
No. Item

107.

Declarations of Interest

To receive from Members, declarations of the existence of any disclosable pecuniary, or non-pecuniary, interests and the nature of those interests in relation to any agenda item. Please see Agenda Notes.

Minutes:

107.1  Councillor Hampson declared an interest as a trustee of Aspire.

108.

Declaration of Party Whipping

To declare if any issues to be covered in the Agenda are under party whip.

 

Minutes:

108.1  There were no declarations of the existence of a party whip.

109.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 153 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 29 October 2018.

Minutes:

109.1  The minutes of the meeting held on 29th October 2018 were confirmed and signed by the Chair as a correct record subject to the amendment of minutes 105.12 and 105.14 to refer to Councillor Hampson rather than Councillor Stephens.

110.

Public Question Time (15 minutes)

To receive any questions from members of the public provided that a question does not relate to:

 

·         Matters which are the subject of current or pending legal proceedings, or

·         Matters relating to employees or former employees of the Council or comments in respect of individual Council Officers

Minutes:

110.1  There were no questions from members of the public.

111.

Petitions and Deputations (15 minutes)

To receive any petitions and deputations provided that no such petition or deputation is in relation to:

 

·         Matters relating to individual Council Officers, or

·         Matters relating to current or pending legal proceedings

Minutes:

111.1  There were no petitions or declarations.

112.

Money Plan 2019-24 & Budget Proposals 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 162 KB

To consider the report of the Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources which sets out the draft Money Plan for the period 2019 to 2024 and Budget Proposals for 2019 to 2020.

 

The format for the session will be as follows:

 

1.     Leader of the Council will introduce the report.

2.     The Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources will add his comments on the report.

 

Each Cabinet Member will then present their respective portfolios in the following order (as set out in Appendix 5):

 

1.     Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economy.

2.     Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources.

3.     Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure.

4.     Cabinet Member for Environment.

5.     Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods.

6.     Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning Strategy.

 

During their presentations the Cabinet Members will address the following points:-

1.     Current staffing levels.

2.     Financial pressures for next year, including any potential reduction in income streams.

3.     The proposed budget savings in their area for next year and how these will impact on the services they provide.

4.     Any new income streams identified during the process.

5.     The main priorities for their portfolio and whether any have changed as a result of the Draft Money Plan

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

112.1         The Chair invited the Leader of the Council, Councillor James, and the Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources, Councillor Hannah Norman, to address the Committee.

 

112.2         Councillor James provided an overview of the draft Money Plan and 2019/20 Budget proposal stating that the current year had been challenging and future years would continue to provide a challenge.

 

112.3         He stated that savings of over £0.2 million had been achieved in 2018/19, building on the savings of over £10 million achieved in recent years. He confirmed that the proposals were draft and would be updated when details of the local Government settlement were known in December.

 

112.4         He advised that the savings this year of £250,000 were due to having taken difficult decisions at an early stage. The savings for next year relate to a review of energy efficiency projects, a prudent phasing of the expected savings from vacating the warehouses as well as the first expected income from our Property Investment Strategy.

 

112.5         He noted that the budget included both revenue and the capital programme, in which provision had been made for the start of the delivery of Kings Square. The Kings Walk property deal has had a significant impact on long term revenue planning and we were able to introduce additional revenue savings of £0.2 million in 2019/20 in addition to those achieved last year which is the net benefit of the rental arrangements.

 

112.6         He stated that the transformation programme which was continuing required the drawing of funds from earmarked reserves during 2018/19 and the proposed plan identified the need to build up those reserves to protect the Council in the future. In particular, the plan assumed a one-off use of £1 million from the Business Rate reserve in 2020/21.

 

112.7         Councillor Hannah Norman continued to present the overview of the Money Plan and Budget stating that local government continued to face a tough financial outlook. In particular from 2020/21 onwards with the Fair Funding Review and the potential resetting of Business Rate Baselines. She noted that the money plan prudently assumed a near full reset of business rates and the expected retained Business Rates had been reduced accordingly.

 

112.8         She noted that the plan assumed the use of £1 million from business rate reserves ibn 2020/21 and to enable this the reserve must be restored to that level by the end of 2019/20.

 

112.9         She advised that no changes to the Money Plan had been required following the Chancellor’s budget on 29th October which included additional Disabled Facilities Grant funding and the Future High Streets Fund.

 

112.10      Longer term decisions on Local Government funding would be made in the Spending Review 2019 which was expected in Autumn 2019. She noted that 2019/20 would be the last year of the four year settlement for Government funding and that the plan assumed that New Homes Bonus would continue to reduce over the life of the Plan.

 

112.11      She referred to the key assumptions detailed in section 6  ...  view the full minutes text for item 112.

113.

Date of Next Meeting

3rd December 2018 at 6.30pm in the Civic Suite, North Warehouse.

 

Minutes:

Monday, 3rd December 2018 at 6.30pm.