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The Treasurer presented a report recommending the Revenue and Capital Budgets and the Council Tax Requirement for 2020/21, the Prudential Indicators and Minimum Revenue Provision Statement (MRP) for 2020/21, the Capital, Investment and Reserves Strategies, the level of Fees and Charges for chargeable services for 2020/21 and potential future resources, their consequential impact on future year budgets and the future Council Tax Requirement (the Medium Term Financial Plan) for approval.
The Treasurer announced to Members that the Business Rate Yield and the Grant Settlement data had not been received at the time the agenda was published but was pleased to inform Members that the figures had now been confirmed. The final Grant Settlement was issued on 4 February and is the same as the provisional data, however it will not be formally confirmed by parliament until week commencing 24 February. The Business Rate Yield was better than expected in the paper by £300,000. The Treasurer confirmed that any variation would be dealt with as a budget monitoring matter at the next Policy and Resources Committee meeting.
With regard to Precept, Members were opposed to a reduction in council tax and the Treasurer confirmed that the Medium Term Financial Plan would continue to assume further annual increases of 1.96% from 2021/22.
Members' attention was drawn to a typographical error in line 29 of Appendix 1.
A Member was interested in the Service's environmental issues and the Chief Fire Officer confirmed that he was the NFCC lead for Environmental and Sustainability. He confirmed that the Service was looking at LED lighting, insulation and electric vehicles and would bring forward proposals to utilise the additional £300,000 business rates to support sustainability.
Members thanked the Treasurer for a very comprehensive report.
RESOLVED that:
i) the Capital Budget and Programme (Appendix 1) be approved;
ii) the Revenue Budget (Appendix 4b) be approved;
iii) the Medium Term Financial Plan (Appendix 5) be approved;
iv) the Core Net Revenue Budget of £35,827,000 be approved;
v) the Authority calculates that in relation to the year 2020/21 and set out in Appendix 7:
a) the aggregate expenditure it will incur will be £38,524,200.00;
b) the aggregate income it will receive will be £10,940,461.00;
c) the net amount transferred from financial reserves will be £3,022,000.00;
d) the net collection fund surplus is £255,825.00;
e) the net amount of its Council Tax Requirement will be £24,305,914.00;
f) the basic amount of Council Tax will be £85.99 (Band D);
g) the proportional tax-bands will be:
- Band A £57.33
- Band B £66.88
- Band C £76.44
- Band D £85.99
- Band E £105.10
- Band F £124.21
- Band G £143.32
- Band H £171.98
h) the precept demands on the individual Billing Authorities are:
- Bromsgrove £3,199,579.51
- Herefordshire £5,998,302.92
- Malvern Hills £2,699,856.17
- Redditch £2,259,501.64
- Worcester £2,772,540.47
- Wychavon £4,457,221.59
- Wyre Forest £2,918,911.70
vi) the Capital Strategy (paragraphs 47-60) be approved;
vii) the Investment Strategy (paragraphs 78-83) be approved;
viii) the Reserves Strategy (paragraphs 64-70 and Appendices 8a/8b) be approved;
ix) the fees and charges for 2020/21 (Appendix 9) be approved; and
x) the Statement of Prudential Indicators and Minimum Revenue Provision Policy (Appendix 10) be approved.
xi) approve the creation of a sustainability fund using the additional business rate yield.