Further to Minute No. 135, 19th December 2018, the Chief Officer, Financial Services, submitted a suite of reports regarding: proposals for the City Council’s Revenue Budget for 2019/20 and the Leeds element of the Council Tax to be levied during the same period; proposals regarding an updated Capital Programme for 2019-2022 and also a proposed updated Treasury Management Strategy for 2019/20.
(A) 2019/20 Revenue Budget and Council Tax
RESOLVED –
(a) That Executive Board recommends to Council the adoption of the following:-
(i) That the revenue budget for 2019/20 totalling £516.7m be approved. This means that the Leeds element of the Council Tax for 2019/20 will increase by 2.99% plus the Adult Social Care precept of 1%. This excludes the police and fire precepts which will be incorporated into the report to be submitted to Council on the 27 February 2019;
(ii) That approval be given for grants totalling £65k 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:-
• A reduction of 1% in dwelling rents in non-Private Finance Initiative areas.
• An increase of 3.4% in dwelling rents in PFI areas.
• A 3.3% increase in district heating charges.
• That service charges for multi-storey flats are increased by £0.75p per week.
• That service charges for low/medium rise properties are increased by 3.3%.
• That the charge for tenants who benefit from the sheltered support service currently paying £6 a week be increased to £8 per week.
• That any overall increase to tenants in respect of rents, service and sheltered support charges are capped at £3.50 per week.
• That an overall freeze is applied to any tenant who would have seen a weekly increase of less than £1 per week.
(b) That Executive Board’s authority be given to officers to begin consultations without delay on the proposals for increases to existing fees and charges;
(c) That Executive Board’s agreement be given to the proposals for the local Business Rates discount scheme for 2019/2020, namely:-
(i) to offer £1000 discount to independent pubs with a rateable value of between £51,000 and £100,000, these pubs having been offered the same discount by government in 2018/19, but not covered by the 33% discount introduced by government for 2019/20 for retail properties with a rateable value under £51,000; and
(ii) to continue to freeze the increase faced by businesses who solely provide childcare to the gross level of rates payable in 2017/18, where this increase is as a result of the revaluation;
(d) That Executive Board’s thanks be extended to Scrutiny Boards for the comments and observations they made in considering the Council’s initial budget proposals.
(B) Capital Programme Update 2019 – 2022
RESOLVED –
(a) That Executive Board recommends to Council:-
(i) the approval of the Capital Programme for 2019-2022 totalling £1,699.7m including the revised projected position for 2018/19, as presented in Appendix G to the submitted report;
(ii) the approval of the MRP policy statements for 2018/19 and 2019/20, as set out in Appendix D(i) and D(ii) to the submitted report;
(iii) the approval of the new Capital and Investment Strategy, as set out in Appendix E to the submitted report.
(b) That Executive Board approval be given for the list of land and property sites, as shown in Appendix B to the submitted report, to be disposed of in order to generate capital receipts for use in accordance with the MRP policy;
(c) That Executive Board approval be given to the following injections into the capital programme:-
· £194.0m, of annual programmes as set out in Appendix A(iii) to the submitted report, to befunded by £90.5m LCC borrowing, £77.5m of HRA specific resources and £26.0m of general fund specific resources;
· £90.9m, of Council Housing Growth Programme Phase 2, as set out in Appendix A(iii) to the submitted report, to befunded by £67.8m of HRA borrowing supported by revenue and £23.1m of HRA specific resources;
· £51.7m, of bid pressures as set out in Appendix A(iii) and listed at Appendix A(iv) of the submitted report, to befunded by Leeds City Council borrowing;
· £127.6m, of other priority pressures as set out in Appendix A(iii) of the submitted report, to befunded by £54.8m of Leeds City Council borrowing and £72.8m of general fund specific resources.
(With it being noted that the above resolutions to inject funding of £464.2m will be implemented by the Chief Officer (Financial Services)).
(C) Treasury Management Strategy 2019/20
RESOLVED –
(a) That the Treasury Strategy for 2019/20, as set out in Section 3.3 of the submitted report, be approved by Executive Board, and that the review of the 2018/19 strategy and operations, as set out in Sections 3.1 and 3.2 of the submitted report, be noted;
(b) That it be noted by Executive Board that the revised CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) Codes and Practice and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government guidance have been adopted, with it also being noted that related changes are detailed in sections 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 of the submitted report;
(c) That subject to full Council approval, the proposals for forward funding, as detailed in sections 3.3.6 to 3.3.9 of the submitted report, and as updated in the Treasury Management Policy Statement, as detailed at appendix D to the submitted report, be noted by Executive Board;
(d) That full Council be recommended to set the borrowing limits for 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22, as detailed in Section 3.4 of the submitted report, and to note the changes to both the Operational Boundary and the Authorised limits;
(e) That full Council be recommended to set the Treasury Management indicators for 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22, as detailed in Section 3.5 of the submitted report;
(f) That full Council be recommended to set the investment limits for 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22, as detailed in Section 3.6 of the submitted report;
(g) That full Council be recommended to adopt the revised Treasury Management Policy Statement, as detailed at appendix D to the submitted report.
(The matters referred to in Minute Nos. (A)(a)(i) – (A)(a)(iv) (Revenue Budget and Council Tax); (B)(a)(i) – (B)(a)(iii) (Capital Programme) and (C)(d) – (C)(g) (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 Golton both required it to be recorded that they respectively abstained from voting on the decisions referred to within this minute)