Agenda and draft minutes

Previously circulated – Members are asked to bring their copy with them to the meeting.

Mr J D Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Finance and Business Support; Ms S J Carey, Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance and Business Support; Mr A Wood, Corporate Director Finance and Procurement; and Mr D Shipton, Acting Head of Financial Strategy will attend the meeting at 10.00 am to answer Members’ questions about the draft medium-term plan and budget proposals. Mr K Abbott, Director of School Resources, has also been invited to attend the meeting, to answer Members’ questions in relation to the Education elements.

Mr A King, MBE, Deputy Leader of the Council, Mr J Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Finance and Business Support, Miss S Carey, Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance and Business Support, Mr A Wood, Corporate Director of Finance & Procurement, Mr D Shipton, Acting Head of Financial Strategy and Mr K Abbott, Director, School Resources were present for this item.

(1)     Mr Wood introduced the Cabinet Budget 2012/13 and Medium Term Financial Plan 2012/15 Report. He thanked District colleagues for making information available on their Council Tax base and Collection Funds earlier to enable the draft report for Cabinet to be published before the end of January; in previous years Cabinet had met to discuss the Budget in February. This also meant that the draft Cabinet report had been made available for scrutiny by the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee for the first time.

(2)     Mr Wood went on to draw Members’ attention to the following points:

-         The Early Intervention Grant had increased by £1.724m compared to the original indicative figure.  The increased grant was intended to fund the Government’s pledge to increase the number of free places for 2 year olds but was un-ring-fenced.  The revised proposed budget identified additional estimated spend of £0.86m on places for 2 year old placements in 2012/13, leaving a balance of £0.864m for other purposes.

-         That consultation on the Budget had been undertaken with Policy Overview and Scrutiny Committees, trade unions, business and the public.

-         That the notified tax base had increased by 0.74% (corresponding to an additional £2.6m compared to the estimate included the draft Budget) despite the reported slow down in the housing market.

-         Referring to Table 6.3, an additional £2.2m was expected from the net surplus in District Council collection funds.  He confirmed that it was usual for a small surplus to be indentified but this had to be treated as one-off funding for the forthcoming budget and cannot be factored in base on-going funding.

-         Referring to Table 7.6, there had been a number of changes to emerging pressures since the release of the draft Budget, resulting in the figure being revised from £9.1m to £7.6m.

-         This £7.6m, combined with the collection fund surplus of £2.2m, meant there was nearly £10m available to be allocated and Section 8 of the report set out proposals for how it would be used in 2012/13.

-         In the Capital programme, £49m had come off the Education, Learning and Skills 3 year programme due to changes in Government grants and academy conversions.  He emphasised that £33m corresponded to the estimated conversion to academies during the forthcoming MTFP period and this money would be controlled by individual academies rather than the local authority.

-         That it was recommended that Council Tax remained frozen for 2012/13, which would make Kent eligible for the Government’s Council Tax Freeze Grant.

(3) Mr Simmonds explained that Cabinet Members had thought about the options regarding Council Tax in detail, and were conscious that the £14.4m from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.