Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room

Contact: Christine Lewis 

Items
No. Item

23.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillors Cross, Grange, A Little, A Yeates and Councillor Strachan, the Cabinet Member for Finance & Commissioning

 

24.

Declarations of Interests

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interests.

 

25.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 120 KB

Minutes:

The Minutes of the previous meeting held on 17 November 2022 were agreed as a correct record.  The Chair advised the committee that he had received an update from the SCC Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny committee who had met on 28 November 2022 and they had agreed to put an item on their work programme for early in the new year relating to post pandemic impacts of COVID on young people in relation to mental health and childrens’ welfare.  This was welcomed.  The Chair said they were also trying to develop a healthier communities’ strategy and had asked that each Borough and District look at putting together a health & wellbeing plan which could feed into the same agenda to ensure all residents are being looked after.  The Chair said he would be talking to the Leader about this and it would be coming to a future O&S meeting for discussion as it could be formulated in to our local plan.  The Leader confirmed he would welcome this as LDC had looked at a Health in All policy previously and it would be good to revisit this and proceed.

26.

Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) pdf icon PDF 830 KB

Minutes:

The Assistant Director - Finance & Commissioning, Mr Thomas, gave a brief update via a presentation on the policy statement received from the government yesterday and explained that the settlement was due to be released w/c 19 December now looking likely to be 21 December.  However, he felt this policy statement was helpful and covered 2 years giving firm figures for 2023/24 and the principles for 2024/25.

 

The key elements of the Policy Statement were explained:-

 

·       Funding reforms have been pushed back to 2025/26 at earliest;

·       New Homes Bonus will be retained for at least 1 year and a further consultation will take place;

·       A New Funding guarantee – gives each council at least 3% increase for two years excluding any decisions on council tax increases and use of reserves – additional grant;

·       Business Rates pools will continue into 2023/24 and in to 2024/25 as well;

·       Ministers have “noted” that local authority reserves have increased significantly in recent years and want local authorities to apply these to funding pressures;

·       In 2024-25, the introduction of the Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) scheme will have an impact on both local authority revenues and potentially costs as well.  Ministers will consider whether these should be factored into the settlement in 2024-25. 

 

Mr Thomas said the good news was that the assumptions used in the draft MTFS were consistent with the announcements in the policy statement and graphs were presented showing the Pre Settlement MTFS central scenario Total Funding compared to Approved Budget and Pre Settlement MTFS central scenario Funding (Surplus) or Gap.  It was noted that the Council was due to get £3.6m & £3m more in funding which is positive and gave options to fund priorities for the council and meant no budget gap for 2023/24 & 2024/25.

 

The Chair explained that the purpose of this meeting was to discuss and get a better understanding of what the council was trying to do with the budget and discuss the priorities members felt were important to the residents of the Lichfield District.  The Chair had also invited members to have a look at the new budget simulator (Lichfield District Council - Budget Simulator (lichfielddc.gov.uk) which had been trialled this year for members of the public to look at and set their own budgets and list their priorities.  It was envisaged the committee could look at this together after the MTFS discussions and offer any solutions going forward to generate more income rather than relying on the council tax base.

 

Questions/comments were discussed:-

 

1)    6% increase in funding from government – how is this calculated?

2)    On Extended Producer Responsibility – if this comes in, would the result be fewer recycling credits?

3)    It was noted in respect of reserves, members have never found it non-transparent at LDC so not an issue for this council - always been very clear.

4)    In respect of the changes for recycling because of our shared waste service – will we expect all councils to be involved  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

27.

Exclusion of Press and Public

RESOLVED: “That as publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business to be transacted, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business, which would involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972”

 

IN PRIVATE

 

Minutes:

RESOLVED: That as publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business to be transacted, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business, which would involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972

 

IN PRIVATE

28.

Confidential Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Minutes:

The Confidential Minutes of the previous meeting held on 17 November 2022 were agreed as a correct record.