Agenda item

Finance and Economic Development (C-062-2020-21) – final draft Budget report.

The Finance and Economic Development Portfolio Holder, Councillor Philip, introduced the final budget proposals for 2021/22.

The report set out the Cabinet’s Final Budget Proposals for 2021/22 and the Medium Term Financial Plan.  If approved by Cabinet, these will then be recommended to Council for consideration at the Budget Setting meeting on 25^th February 2021. The Stronger Council Select Committee had considered Cabinet’s Draft Budget Proposals at their meeting on 19^th January 2021.  

As had been previously stated, the development process had been exceptional this year, in that Covid19 was having and would continue to have a massive impact on many areas of the Council’s budget.  It was expected that this impact would continue into the next financial year, with lasting impacts thereafter, but there was little certainty as to the extent and scale of the continued impact.  This had made preparing a robust budget exceptionally challenging and medium-term planning even harder.

As a consequence, the budget had been developed in an environment of ongoing uncertainty and this had meant many significant assumptions have had to be made for next year. This had meant that the budget was less well developed than would normally be expected.

However, this was a balanced budget and he could recommend a Council Tax freeze (of 0%) for 2021/22.

Councillor C Whitbread said that he was glad to have a 0% Council Tax increase and would also like to put on record his thanks to all the officers involved; who in a particularly tough year, had carried out a brilliant job in getting this budget together. Councillor Philips agreed. Councillor C Whitbread went on to praise his Cabinet team who had also brought forward exciting new projects, with officers, despite the Covid epidemic. They had not only done what was expected of them but also the unexpected, on matters around Qualis, the sports centre and the council house building programme. This should not be forgotten.

Councillor H Whitbread welcomed the freezing of Council Tax. It was good for Epping to have a new leisure centre and to have the continuation of the extra Police Officers and the council house building programme. Another piece of good news was that they now had investment partner status with Homes England which gave the Council  opportunities for grants and more projects to come in the council house development programme.

Councillor Philip noted that we provided a lot of things that were not just statutory services, such as the extra police officers.

Councillor S Kane also congratulated the finance team and was pleased to see the Kick Start Programme and the Town Centre Managers in there.

Councillor Murray thanked the officers and the Portfolio Holder on an excellent budget and that they had consulted across the Council on it. He was also pleased with the 0% Council Tax increase. He then asked about the figures for Abandoned Vehicles, why had it gone from £21k this year to a draft expenditure for next year of £6.5k. why so low? Also, under Economic Projects, Safer Communities showed a spend of £238k for 2020/21 but a draft of only £89k for next year.

Councillor Philip thanked Councillor Kane for his comments. As for Councillor Murray’s questions, he would have to get back to him about that.

Councillor Heap expressed concern about the amount of debt accruing, citing the HRA as a worry. He also noted that on supplement 3, appendix B, page 5, the columns did not add up. Councillor Philip asked him to send through to him the details of the arithmetical errors he had found (however after the meeting these errors were shown not to be and that Councillor Heap’s figures had been in error).

Councillor Heap continued that it was important to continue building affordable housing in the district for our residents but agreed that it was right that we were able to afford what we spent.

Councillor Patel was impressed by the budget and noted that the transition from one 151 officer to the other had been seamless during a difficult time. We were lucky to have had two very good officers to support us through this period.

Councillor Wixley was pleased that Council Tax was not going to go up.

Decision:

Reasons for Proposed Decisions:

The Budget was a statutory requirement for the Council.

Other Options for Action:

N/A.