Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from Councillors.

Apologies were received from Cllr O Walters.

To receive information on any changes in the membership of the Committee.

Note – When a member of a Committee is unable to attend a meeting of a Committee or Sub-Committee, the relevant Political Group Leader (or their nominated representative) may, by notice to the Monitoring Officer (or their nominated representative) prior to the meeting, appoint a substitute member from within the same Political Group. The contact details on the front of this agenda should be used for notifications.

Cllr M LePoidevan substituted for Cllr O Walters.

Councillors are requested to declare any interests on items included in this agenda. Please refer to the workflow on the preceding page for guidance.

Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest made on this occasion.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Meetings held on 6 and 13 January 2025.

The minutes of the meetings held on 6 January and 13 January 2025 were approved as a correct record subject to an amendment to correct the word ‘statutory’ to ‘Strategic’ in the second paragraph of clause 90 in the 6 January minutes.

To consider any outstanding actions from previous meetings.

The Chair introduced the action sheet and the following was noted:

Minute number 28 was included on the agenda for this meeting and could be removed as an action.

Minute number 69 was fully addressed by the agenda for this meeting and could be removed as an action.

Minute number 79 had been completed in part the Chair proposed that it be removed but that he would follow up on outstanding issues with the Portfolio Holder.

Minutes number 98 – An item would be added to the work plan on regeneration and the action could be removed.

To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution. Further information on the requirements for submitting these is available to view at the following link:-

https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeID=151&Info=1&bcr=1

The deadline for the submission of public questions is midday 3 clear working days before the meeting – Tuesday 28 February.

The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday the working day before the meeting – Friday 31 January.

The deadline for the submission of a petition is 10 working days before the meeting.

There were none on this occasion.

To receive the responses from Cabinet to recommendations made by the Overview and Scrutiny Board

The responses received from the Cabinet on queries raised by the O&S Board were noted.

This report provides the quarter three projected financial outturn information for the general fund, housing revenue account (HRA) and capital programme.

The quarter three overall revenue projected outturn is for a balanced position to be achieved based on the latest assumptions, including that the expenditure control mechanisms remain in place for the remainder of the year. A small contingency remains unused for any unexpected costs over the final quarter.    

At the request of the Chair the Portfolio Holder for Finance presented both the Council Budget Monitoring 2024/25 at Quarter Three report and the Budget 2025/26 and Medium Term Financial Plan, copies of which had been circulated to each Member and copies of which appear as Appendices 'A' and ‘B’ to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

Prior to the Portfolio Holder’s presentation, the Chief Finance Officer advised of two updates following the receipt of the final Local Government Finance Settlement which was received the afternoon of the meeting. The meeting was advised that there had been an £80k increase to the Children’s Social Care Prevention grant from £966,000 to £1,046,000. This grant was ringfenced for this specific purpose.  The Council had estimated that the Employers National Insurance Contribution Grant would be £3.3m, leaving a shortfall on the £5.2m cost of the increase. However, the final figure received was only £3.152m which would lead to a reduction in the contingency from that outlined in the paper. The meeting was also advised that the ability to go over the Council tax increase threshold of 5 percent, was issued by government to just 6 local authorities.

The Board was informed that the monitoring report provided the quarter three projected financial outturn information for the general fund, housing revenue account (HRA) and capital programme. The quarter three overall revenue projected outturn was for a balanced position to be achieved based on the latest assumptions, including that the expenditure control mechanisms remain in place for the remainder of the year. A small contingency remained unused for any unexpected costs over the final quarter.  The Board was advised that the Budget report set out the proposed 2025/26 budget and council tax based on.

·     Increasing council tax by 4.99% in 2025/26 in line with the government’s annual referendum threshold which can be broken down into a 2.99% basic increase and a 2% uplift by way of the Adult Social Care (ASC) precept.

·     Implementation of the approved financial strategy.

·     Implementation of £7.8m of further savings, efficiencies, and additional income generation required to set a legally balanced budget and support the basis of a more financially sustainable council moving forward.

·     Borrowing to fund the Special Educational Needs and Disability services revenue expenditure above the level of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) High Needs grant. It will also be considered with government if it would be prudent to obtain a capitalisation direction associated with the 2024/25 and 2025/26 interest costs on the accumulated DSG deficit.

·     Recognise that the government must come up with a permanent solution to return the SEND system both locally and nationally to financial sustainability.

·     Recognition that the council is technically insolvent from the 1 April 2025 onwards as the accumulated deficit on the DSG will be greater than the total reserves held by the council, with a negative overall general fund position and is only protected by the statutory override.

The report also included the latest Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) covering the 3-year period  ...  view the full minutes text for item 106.

To set out for Cabinet’s consideration and recommendation to Council the proposed 2025/26 budget and council tax based on.

·     Increasing council tax by 4.99% in 2025/26 in line with the government’s annual referendum threshold which can be broken down into a 2.99% basic increase and a 2% uplift by way of the Adult Social Care (ASC) precept.

·     Implementation of the approved financial strategy.

·     Implementation of £7.8m of further savings, efficiencies, and additional income generation required to set a legally balanced budget and support the basis of a more financially sustainable council moving forward.

·     Borrowing to fund the Special Educational Needs and Disability services revenue expenditure above the level of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) High Needs grant. It will also be considered with government if it would be prudent to obtain a capitalisation direction associated with the 2024/25 and 2025/26 interest costs on the accumulated DSG deficit.

·     Recognise that the government must come up with a permanent solution to return the SEND system both locally and nationally to financial sustainability.

·     Recognition that the council is technically insolvent from the 1 April 2025 onwards as the accumulated deficit on the DSG will be greater than the total reserves held by the council, with a negative overall general fund position and is only protected by the statutory override.

This report also provides the latest Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) covering the 3-year period to 31 March 2028.

This agenda item was dealt with jointly with the preceding item.

The Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Board is asked to consider and identify work priorities for publication in a Work Plan.

The Chair introduced the Work Plan a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appear as Appendix ‘C’ to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Board was informed that the Residents Card report for the next meeting had been withdrawn from the Cabinet agenda.

The Board also discussed the timing of the Community Governance Review Report and the associated Task and Finish Group, there was consensus that it was important for the Board to consider this issue.

It was agreed to add an item to the plan with a date to be determined on the Future Leisure Strategy and to add a separate briefing session with BCP Leisure.

The membership of the Consultation Framework working group was discussed and agreed.

It was suggested that it would be useful for the Board members to have a Teams channel to provide collaborative space to contribute to key lines of enquiry.