Agenda item

Purpose of Report

To recommend to the Executive the draft Medium Term Financial Strategy for the period 2019-2024, the draft budget and Council Tax proposal for 2019/20 and the draft Capital Strategy 2019-2024 for consideration.

Decision

That the Executive:

(1)       Agrees for consultation and scrutiny the draft Medium Term Financial Strategy 2019-2024 and the draft Capital Strategy 2019-2024, including the following specific elements:

·         a proposed Council Tax increase of 2.95% for 2019/20;

·         a proposed housing rent decrease of 1% for 2019/20;

·         the inclusion of the Council as a member of the Lincolnshire Business Rates Pool in 2019/20;

·         the draft General Fund revenue forecast 2019/20 – 2023/24 as shown in Appendix 1 of the report and the main basis on which the budget has been calculated;

·         the draft General Investment Programme 2019/20 – 2023/24 as shown in Appendix 2 of the report and the main basis on which the programme has been calculated;

·         the draft Housing Revenue Account forecast 2019/20 – 2023/24 as shown in Appendix 3 of the report and the main basis on which the programme has been calculated;

·         the draft Housing Investment Programme 2019/20 – 2023/24 as shown in Appendix 4 of the report and the main basis on which the programme has been calculated.

(2)       Agrees to delegate to the Chief Finance Officer approval of the final Business Rates base for the financial year commencing 1 April 2019 and ending 31 March 2020 and submission of the base, via the NNDR1 return, to the Department for Communities and Local Government by 31 January 2019.

(3)       Notes that all changes to the base estimated in the draft Medium Term Financial Strategy 2019-2024 will be reported to the Executive as part of the final Medium Term Financial Strategy 2019-24 on 25 February 2019.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reason for Decision

Prior to submission of the Medium Term Financial Strategy 2019-2024 and the budget and Council Tax proposal for 2018/19 to Full Council, the initial draft as appended to the report would be subject to public consultation and member scrutiny via the Budget Review Group.

The report provided an overview of the General Fund, which included updates on the following:

·         provisional finance settlement 2019/20;

·         Council Tax;

·         spending plans;

·         the Council’s Towards Financial Sustainability Programme;

·         robustness and adequacy of the budget and reserves.

An overview of the housing revenue account was also set out in the report and provided updates on the following:

·         housing rents;

·         financing the capital programme;

·         robustness and adequacy of the budget and reserves.

The report also provided updates on the General Investment Programme, the Housing Investment Programme and the Capital Strategy.