Agenda item

a)  2020/21 Revenue Budget and Council Tax

To consider the report of the Chief Officer Financial Services on the proposals for the City Council’s Revenue Budget for 2020/2021 and the Leeds element of the Council Tax to be levied in 2020/2021

b)  Capital Programme Update 2020 – 2024

To consider the report of the Chief Officer Financial Services on the Capital Programme for the period 2020 – 2024 and which includes details of forecast resources for that period together with an update on the 2019/20 programme.

c)  Treasury Management Strategy 2020/2021

To consider the report of the Chief Officer Financial Services on the Treasury Management Strategy for 2020/21

Further to Minute No. 128,7th January 2020, the Chief Officer, Financial Services, submitted a suite of reports regarding: proposals for the City Council’s Revenue Budget for 2020/21 and the Leeds element of the Council Tax to be levied during the same period; proposals regarding an updated Capital Programme for 2020-2024 and also a proposed updated Treasury Management Strategy for 2020/21.

(A)  2020/21 Revenue Budget and Council Tax

RESOLVED -

(a)  That Council be recommended to note the recommendation of the Council’s statutory officer (the Chief Officer – Financial Services) that the proposed budget for 2020/21 is robust and that the proposed level of reserves is adequate, as set out at Section 12 of the submitted report;

(b)  That Executive Board recommends to Council the adoption of the following:-

(i)  That the revenue budget for 2020/21 totalling £525.7m, be approved. This means that the Leeds element of the Council Tax for 2020/21 will increase by 1.99% plus the Adult Social Care precept of 2%. This excludes the Police and Fire precepts which will be incorporated into the report to be submitted to Council on the 26th February 2020;

(ii)  That approval be given to grants totalling £65.7k to be allocated to parishes;

(iii)  That approval be given to the strategy at Appendix 9 of the submitted report in respect of the flexible use of capital receipts;

(iv)  That in respect of the Housing Revenue Account, Council be recommended to approve the budget with:-

·  An increase of 2.7% (CPI+1%) in dwelling rents;

·  A 2.4% RPI increase in charges for all District Heating schemes;

·  The service charges for low/medium and multi-storey flats being increased by RPI of 2.4%;

·  The charge for tenants who benefit from the sheltered support service being increased to £14.71 per week to reflect full cost recovery. The charge being eligible for Housing Benefit;

·  The subsidy for tenants who are not eligible for benefits but receive the sheltered support service being set at £4.71 per week. Therefore the amount payable by these tenants will increase from £8 per week to £10 per week;

·  Any overall increase to tenants in respect of rents, service and sheltered support being no more than £3.50 per week.

(v)  That in respect of the Schools Budget, approval be given to the High Needs Block budget for 2020/21, as set out in paragraph 5 of the Schools Budget Report as detailed at Appendix 8 of the submitted report;

(c)  That Executive Board’s approval be given to authorise officers to grant relief against business rates liability in line with Business Rates Information Letter (1/2020), for which the Council will be fully compensated for any loss of income;

(d)  That Executive Board’s thanks be conveyed to Scrutiny Boards for the comments and observations made as part of Scrutiny’s consideration of the Council’s Initial Budget Proposals.

(B)  Capital Programme Update 2020 – 2024

RESOLVED –

(a)  That Executive Board recommends to Council:

(i) the approval of the Capital Programme for 2020-2024 totalling £2,009.9m, including the revised projected position for 2019/20, as presented in Appendix A to the submitted report;

(ii) the approval of the MRP policy statement for 2020/21 as set out in Appendix C to the submitted report;and

(iii) the approval of the Capital and Investment Strategy as set out in Appendix D to the submitted report;

(b)  That Executive Board approval be given to the following injections into the Capital Programme:-

·  £146.0m of annual programme injections as set out in Appendix A(iii) and listed at Appendix A(iv) of the submitted report, to befunded by £129.7m Leeds City Council borrowing and £16.3m of specific resources;

·  £75.9m of major programme injections, as set out in Appendix A(iii) and listed at Appendix A(iv) of the submitted report, to befunded by £54.1m Leeds City Council borrowing and £21.8m of specific resources;

·  £322.2m of other injections, primarily relating to the roll forward of the HRA Programme and annual capital grant allocations, as set out in Appendix A(iii) of the submitted report, to be fully funded by specific resources.

(c)   That it be noted that the above resolutions to inject funding of £544.1m will be implemented by the Chief Officer (Financial Services).

(C)  Treasury Management Strategy 2020/21

Members extended their thanks to finance officers for the work that had been undertaken in the re-profiling of the Authority’s borrowing, with the financial benefits for the Council being noted.

Responding to a Member’s request for further information on the London Inter Bank Overnight Rate (LIBOR) dispute as referenced within the submitted report, officers undertook to provide the Member in question with a separate briefing on such matters.

RESOLVED - 

(a)  That the Treasury Strategy for 2020/21, as set out in Section 3.3 of the submitted report be approved by the Executive Board, and that the review of the 2019/20 strategy and operations, as set out in Sections 3.1 and 3.2, be noted;

(b)  That the proposals for forward funding, as detailed in 3.3.6 to 3.3.9 of the submitted report, be noted by Executive Board;

(c)  That full Council be recommended to set the borrowing limits for 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23, as detailed in Section 3.4 of the submitted report and to note the changes to both the Operational Boundary and the Authorised limits;

(d)  That full Council be recommended to set the treasury management indicators for 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23, as detailed in Section 3.5 of the submitted report;

(e)  That full Council be recommended to set the investment limits for 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23, as detailed in Section 3.6 of the submitted report.

(The matters referred to in Minute Nos. 151 (A)(a) – 151(A)(b)(v) (Revenue Budget and Council Tax); 151(B)(a)(i) – 151(B)(a)(iii) (Capital Programme) and 151(C)(c) – 151(C)(e) (Treasury Management Strategy), given that they were decisions being made in accordance with the Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules, were not eligible for Call In)

(Under the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 16.5, Councillors A Carter and S Golton both required it to be recorded that they respectively abstained from voting on the decisions referred to within this minute)