Agenda item

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

RESOLVED that the report be accepted and agreed Option 1, as follows:-

1)   Subject to the decisions on the following recommendations, Members considered and recommended to Council the 2024/25 revenue budget as shown in the table in paragraph 5.1.15 of the report.

2)   Members provided comment on the outcomes within the overall provisional RSG Settlement and noted the potential for further change in the Final RSG Settlement (paragraphs 2.6 – 2.17 of the report).

3)   Members provided comment on the outcomes within the BGCBC provisional RSG Settlement and its impact upon the Medium Term Financial Strategy (paragraphs 2.18 – 2.26 of the report).

4)   Members  considered and recommend to Council the updated cost pressures and growth items (£2.8m in total) detailed in Appendix 2 (paragraphs 5.1.10 – 5.1.16 of the report) for inclusion in the Council’s budget.

5)   Members considered and recommended to Council the Bridging the Gap proposals (a summary of which is detailed at Appendix 3 and Business Cases are outlined in Appendix 4) delivering a minimum of £6.27m of financial efficiencies and budget cuts towards the budget gap (paragraphs 5.1.32 to 5.1.37 of the report).

6)   Members considered and recommended to Council the level of funding provided to schools (paragraph 5.1.19-5.1.27 of the report).

7)   Members recommended that any grant/s transferring into the Final Settlement for 2024/2025 be passported to the relevant service/s.

8)   Members considered and recommended to Council the use of reserves up to £2.1m to balance the budget for 2024/2025 (paragraphs 5.1.38 to 5.1.42 of the report). The level would be subject to the recommendations in paragraph 3.1.5 and 3.1.6 above.

9)   Members considered and recommended to Council, a Council Tax increase of a minimum of 5% for 2024/25 (paragraph 5.1.10 of the report) as per the Business Case CS12 (detailed in Appendix 3 and 4).

10)   Approved the updated MTFS for 2024/2025 to 2028/2029 as detailed in Appendix 5.