Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor Pat Vaughan declared a Personal Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Draft Medium Term Financial Strategy 2025-2030'.

Reason: His daughter worked in the Revenues and Benefits Team at City of Lincoln Council.

Budget Review Group considered the Draft Medium Term Financial Strategy 2025-2030 and provisional 2025/26 budget and Council Tax proposals. A copy of the Medium-Term Financial Strategy was appended to the report. The results of the public engagement on the Budget Proposals for 2025/26 were also tabled at the meeting for members’ information.

Jaclyn Gibson, Chief Finance Officer, presented her report and highlighted that the main objectives of this meeting were to:

• examine the principles and planning process that underlaid the proposed budget and Council Tax for the 2025/2026 financial year
• ensure that at each stage the budget was clear, focused, achievable, realistic, and based on sound financial practices;
• ensure that at each stage the budget had clear linkages with corporate and other plans that formed the Council’s Policy Framework, establishing that they were identifiable and designed to improve services in the Council’s strategic priority areas.

A number of questions were provided by Members in advance of the meeting which, together with responses provided, were noted as follows:

Question:For clarification, are the first build of housing on the Charterholme  development a Council build investment under Major Development General Fund or is this a Lindum Development ?

Response: The land on which the first 52 homes at the Charterholme development was being built belonged to the Council. The Council had entered into a development agreement with Lindum Homes to build the homes on the Council’s behalf. The Council would fund the cost of the works and would receive the proceeds of the sales. The homes were built as part of the General Fund and would be market homes for sale. The anticipated capital receipt from these sales was included in the General Investment Programme (page’s 39-41) of the Medium Financial Term Strategy.

A report to the Executive on 22 July 2024 set out the detail of the development.

Supplementary Member Comment: If the Council did not do this, then we would not be able to build Council houses.

Response: The General Fund did not impact on the Housing Revenue Account. The Council had obtained grant funding from Homes England to assist with the project, which had specific grant conditions in terms of the tenure of the first 52 homes. The homes would be market homes as the gateway to the development.

Supplementary Question: Who would pay for the new link road for the southern access into the site?

Response: This was common infrastructure and was funded equally between the two landowners (the Council being one).

Supplementary Question: What financial benefit would the Council accrue from the scheme?

Response: There was a minimum land value for the Council set at £2m. Any amount over this would be subject to profit share arrangements as per the development agreement with the contractor.

Supplementary Question: When was the £2m land receipt expected?

Response: The new homes were on the market with a planned 18-month build time. We were expecting a completion date of Summer 2026.

Question:What is the sinking fund (AGP) and City Hall  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.