Agenda item

Revenue Budget 2020/2021

To consider the report of the Chief Officer Resources.

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the report of the Chief Officer Resources.

 

The Chief Officer Resources spoke to the report which presented the Revenue Budget and Council Tax proposals for Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council for the next financial year 2020/2021 including the precepts approved by other statutory authorities that would impact upon the local level of Council Tax and included the relevant statutory resolutions.

 

It was noted that the Council Meeting on 6th February, 2020 had considered the provisional Revenue Settlement and since that time details of the final settlement had now been received from Welsh Government. The Chief Officer Resources advised Council that there had been no significant changes to the details between the provisional and final settlement that she needed to specifically draw Members’ attention to as the Revenue Settlement Grant remained at £116m.  There had been one slight increase in the level of funding for specific revenue grants however, this information was still only available on all Wales basis and the impact of this specifically on Blaenau Gwent was still unknown.

 

Options for Recommendation

 

The Chief Officer Resources continued by outlining the options for recommendation contained in Section 3 of the report and advised that:

 

ØCouncil at its meeting on 6th February, 2020 had agreed a Council Tax increase of 3.9% for the 2020/2021 financial year.

 

ØThe term ‘special items’ related to the precepts for Town/Community Councils and £506,143 was the total value of these precepts.

 

ØDetails of the Full Council Tax including Police and Community Precepts for all areas of Blaenau Gwent could be found in the final table of Section 3 of the report.

 

 

 

 

 

Implications Against Each Option

 

The financial implications for the 2020/2021 budget setting process were summarised below:

 

ØA Council Tax increase of 3.9% (Blaenau Gwent element).  This was a 1% reduction compared to the current financial year.

 

ØA budget requirement for the Council of £151,732 million (including Community Councils).

 

ØBridging the Gap efficiencies had been built into the revenue budget of £1,465 million.

 

ØCost Pressures amounting to £1.16 million and Growth Items amounting to £0.89 million had been built into the revenue budget.

 

Budget Requirement

 

ØTable 1 attached at Appendix 1 of the report provided a summary of the resulting portfolio estimates taking into account the Bridging the Gap proposals, cost pressures and growth items.  In addition, £1.7m would be transferred into the Council’s reserves.  This resulted in a statutory budget requirement of £151,732,365.  Discretionary rate relief of £208,000 needed to be added to the budget requirement to give the total net revenue budget for 2020/2021 of £151,940,365.

 

Reserves

 

ØThe Council had agreed a target level for general reserves, being 4% of the last reported actual net revenue expenditure.

 

ØAssuming the 2019/2020 quarter 3 forecast remained until the year end, the forecast level of general reserves would be £6.079 million (4.5%).  This level of reserves was above the 4% target level specified within the reserves protocol.

 

 

 

Section 25, Local Government Act 2003

 

The above legislation required the Chief Officer Resources to report on the following points:

 

Ø The robustness of the estimates included in the budget - the Chief Officer Resources was able to conclude that the estimates had been compiled with the most up to date information available and were suitably robust.  Cost pressures had been considered during the budget setting process and for the medium term.

 

Ø The adequacy of the Authority’s reserves - paragraph 5.1.12 demonstrated that the Authority was looking to achieve a sustainable position for the forthcoming year and in the medium term.  The reserves protocol would continue to review reserves in order to ensure that General Reserves were kept at a sustainable level in the medium term

 

Members were then given to the opportunity to raise questions and comment on the report.

 

The Leader of the Council advised that the 3.9% Council Tax increase had already been agreed by Council at its meeting on 6th February, 2020.  Traditionally this meeting received the additional elements that made up the sum total of the Council Tax and for the Chief Officer Resources to provide reassurances to Council in respect of the robustness of the estimates and the adequacy of Council reserves.  The Leader concluded by stating that at the appropriate juncture he would propose endorsement of the report.

 

The Leader of the Labour Group commented on the robustness of the estimates and commended the work undertaken to achieve this.

 

Town/Community Council Precepts

 

The Leader of the Labour Group referring to the Town/Community Council precepts detailed on Page 10 of the report and said that clearly the precept level for Abertillery & Llanhilleth was quite substantially higher than the other Town Council precepts.  He continued by stating that he was aware that when Tredegar Town Council took over responsibilities for example, Deighton Playing Fields and the Public Conveniences these were separate and distinct areas of service from that which the Council provided and requested an assurance that Abertillery & Llanhilleth Community Council was not duplicating the services provided by the Council.

 

The Leader of the Council confirmed that Abertillery & Llanhilleth Community Council was not duplicating the services provided by the Council.

 

Options for Recommendation

 

The Leader of the Labour Group referred to the considerable number of recommendations contained in Section 3 of the report all of which were prefaced with ‘to be noted’.  He sought clarity that if the report was supported that the Labour Group that only the factual elements of the report would be supported and this did not negate the proposal of the Labour Group to increase Council Tax by 2.9% at the Council meeting on 6th February, 2020.

 

The Chief Officer Resources confirmed that Members would be ‘noting’ all that had been agreed previously at Council on 6th February, 2020 and would be accepting the precepts that had been advised by the police and town/community councils.

 

The Leader of the Labour Group confirmed that as only points of fact were required to be noted he was content to support the recommendations contained within the report.

 

Discretionary Council Tax Allowance

 

A Member referred to the recent flooding of properties in Cwm and Llanhilleth and asked whether there was any possibility that the Council could follow along the similar lines of other authorities and provide a discretionary council tax allowance to those residents who had been affected by these recent events.

 

The Leader of the Council commenced by stating that specific funding packages were available from the Welsh Government for those residents in affected areas.  In terms of Council Tax allowances, he was aware that the Managing Director was having discussions with officers from the Resources Department to ascertain what support could be provided.  He said that he had seen the horrific nature that the flooding had caused in both Cwm and Llanhilleth and in some other local authority areas i.e. Rhondda-Cynon-Taff it had been reported that residents would be displaced for a considerable period of time. The Leader concluded by confirming that if the Council could assist those residents within the affected areas this support would be provided.

 

A Member said that it was the opportune time to commend the Council on the first class job it had done responding to the flooding incidents in Llanhilleth and said that if any further support could be made available this would be welcomed.

 

The Leader of the Council proposed that the recommendations contained in the report be endorsed.  This proposal was seconded.

 

Upon a vote being taken it was unanimously,

 

RESOLVED, subject to the foregoing, that the report be accepted and it was noted that:

 

3.1    The Council agreed at its meeting on 6th February, 2020 a

         Council Tax increase of 3.9% for the 2020/2021 financial year. 

         As a result, the Blaenau Gwent Council element of the full  

         council tax charge would be: 

       

Valuation Bands (£)

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

1,141.24

1,331.45

1,521.65

1,711.86

2,092.27

2,472.68

2,853.09

3,423.71

3,994.33

 

3.2   At its meeting on 2nd March, 2020 the Council calculated the

        following amounts for the year (2020/2021) in accordance with

        regulations made under Section 33(5) of the Local Government

        Act 1992:

 

3.3   The Council Tax base was the number of chargeable dwellings

         in each area adjusted for a number of items e.g. discounts

         payable, multiplied by the assumed collection rate which for

         2020/2021 was 95%.

 

a)   The amount calculated by the Council, in accordance with Regulation 3, of the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) Regulations 1992, as its Council Tax base for the year was:

 

20,662.45

 

b)   The amounts calculated by the Council, in accordance with Regulation 6 of the Regulations, as the amount of its Council Tax base for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which one or more special items relate were:

 

                                                                        £

 

         Abertillery & Llanhilleth                           4,638.15

         Brynmawr                                               1,689.96

         Nantyglo & Blaina                                   2,695.12

         Tredegar                                                 4,704.71

 

c)   For the year 2020/2021 the Gwent Office of Police and Crime Commissioner had stated the following amounts in precepts issued to the Council (totalling £5,640,022), in accordance with Section 40 of the Local Government Act 1992, for each of the categories of dwellings shown:

 

Gwent Office of Police and Crime Commissioner

Valuation Bands (£)

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

181.97

212.30

242.63

272.96

333.62

394.28

454.93

545.92

636.91

 

3.4    That the following amounts be now calculated by the Council

          for the year 2020/2021 in accordance with Sections 32 to 36 of 

          the Local Government Finance Act 1992:-

 

a)  £217,235,415 - Being the aggregate of the amounts which 

          the Council estimated for the items set out in Section

          32(2)(a) to (d) of the Act.

 

b)  £65,503,050 - Being the aggregate of the amounts which

         the Council estimated for the items set out in Section 

         32(3)(a) and (c) of the Act.

 

c)  £151,732,365 - Being the amount by which the aggregate at

         (a) above exceeded the aggregate at (b), calculated by the

         Council, in accordance with Section 32(4) of the Act, as its

         budget requirement for the year.

 

d) £208,000 - Being the amount the Authority estimated in

        relation to Sections 47 and 49 of the Local Government

        Finance Act 1988 as amended by Schedule 1 of the Local

        Government and Rating Act 1997, for discretionary non-

        domestic rate relief.

 

e) £116,063,000 - Being the aggregate of the sums which the

        Council estimated would be payable for the year into its

        Council fund in respect of redistributed non-domestic rates,

        revenue support grant and additional grant.

 

f) £1,736.36 - Being the amount at (c) above plus the amount

         at (d) above and less the amount at (e) above, all divided by

         the amount at 3.2(a) above, calculated by the Council, in

         accordance with Section 33(1) of the Act, as the basic

         amount of its Council Tax for the year.

 

g) £506,143 - Being the aggregate amount of all special items

         referred to in Section 34(1) of the Act.

 

h) £1,711.86 - Being the amount at (f) above less the result

        given by dividing the amount at (g) above by the amount at

        3.2(a) above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with

        Section 34(2) of the Act, as the basic amount of its Council

        Tax for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to

         which no special item related.

 

i) The amounts given by adding to the amount at (h) above the

        amounts of the special item or items relating to dwellings in

        those parts of the Council's area mentioned above divided in

        each case by the amount at 3.2(b) above, calculated by the

        Council, in accordance with Section 34(3) of the Act, as the

        basic amounts of its Council Tax for the year for dwellings in

        those parts of its area to which one or more special items

        relate were:

 

                                                                              £

 

         Abertillery & Llanhilleth                                1,763.61

         Brynmawr                                                    1,737.30

         Nantyglo & Blaina                                        1,743.29

         Tredegar                                                      1,741.28

 

j) The amounts given by multiplying the amounts at (h) and (i)

         above by the number which, in the proportion set out in

         section 5(1) of the Act, was applicable to dwellings listed in a

         particular valuation band divided by the number which in that

         proportion was applicable to dwellings listed in valuation

         Band D, calculated by the Council, in accordance with

         Section 36(1) of the Act, as the amounts to be taken into

         account for the year in respect of categories of dwellings

         listed in different valuation bands were:

 

The County Borough Tax including Community Precepts

Valuation Bands

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

Abertillery & Llanhilleth

1,175.74

1,371.70

1,567.65

1,763.61

2,155.52

2,547.44

2,939.35

3,527.22

4,115.09

Brynmawr

1,158.20

1,351.24

1,544.26

1,737.30

2,123.36

2,509.44

2,895.50

3,474.60

4,053.70

Nantyglo & Blaina

1,162.19

1,355.90

1,549.59

1,743.29

2,130.68

2,518.09

2,905.48

3,486.58

4,067.68

Tredegar

1,160.85

1,354.33

1,547.80

1,741.28

2,128.23

2,515.19

2,902.13

3,482.56

4,062.99

Ebbw Vale

1,141.24

1,331.45

1,521.65

1,711.86

2,092.27

2,472.69

2,853.10

3,423.72

3,994.34

 

k)    That, having calculated the aggregate in each case of the

       amounts at (c) and (j) above, the Council, in accordance with

       Section 30(2) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992,

       hereby sets the following amounts as the amounts of Council

       Tax for the year 2020/21 for each of the categories of

        dwellings shown below:

 

The Full Tax of the County Borough Tax including Police and Community Precepts

Valuation Bands

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

Abertillery & Llanhilleth

1,357.71

1,584.00

1,810.28

2,036.57

2,489.14

2,941.72

3,394.28

4,073.14

4,752.00

Brynmawr

1,340.17

1,563.54

1,786.89

2,010.26

2,456.98

2,903.72

3,350.43

4,020.52

4,690.61

Nantyglo & Blaina

1,344.16

1,568.20

1,792.22

2,016.25

2,464.30

2,912.37

3,360.41

4,032.50

4,704.59

Tredegar

1,342.82

1,566.63

1,790.43

2,014.24

2,461.85

2,909.47

3,357.06

4,028.48

4,699.90

Ebbw Vale

1,323.21

1,543.75

1,764.28

1,984.82

2,425.89

2,866.97

3,308.03

3,969.64

4,631.25

 

Supporting documents: