Agenda item

Council was requested to approve the recommendations from the Cabinet meeting held on 21 February 2023 in relation to the Annual Budget and Council Tax Setting for 2023/24 and an update for the Medium Term Financial

Strategy (MTFS).

(In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 30.1, it was moved by Councillor Jason Zadrozny and seconded by Councillor Helen-Ann Smith that Procedure

Rule 16.4, in relation to the "Content and Length of Speeches", be suspended for this item only to enable Councillor David Martin (as mover) and Councillor David Hennigan (as seconder) to deliver their budget speeches for an allocated total time of 15 minutes each.  Having been put to the vote, the Council agreed with this course of action.)

RESOLVED that

a)    a £5.75 annual increase in the level of the District’s own Council Tax for 2023/24, setting the Band D equivalent at £201.21 (representing a 2.94% increase compared with 2022/23) be approved;

b)    the proposed 2023/24 Revenue (General Fund) and HRA Budgets as set out in this report (Sections 3 and 4), be approved;

c)    the proposed Capital Programme and associated borrowing 2022/23 to 2026/27 as set out in this report (Section 5 and Appendix 1), be approved;

d)    the 2022/23 Revised HRA and Capital Budgets as set out in the report (Sections 4 and 5), be approved;

e)    the estimated financial challenge in the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for 2024/2025 to 2026/27 and the planned approach to address the challenge (Section 8), be noted;

f)     the proposed use of reserves as set out in the report (Table 6 [General Fund] and Table 9 [HRA]), be approved;

g)    the comments and advice of the Corporate Finance Manager (Section 151 Officer), provided in compliance with Section 25 of the Local Government Act 2003, as to the robustness of the estimates included in the 2023/24 Budget and the adequacy of the reserves for which this budget provides (Section 9), be received and accepted;

h)    the proposed 2023/24 budgets reflecting the agreed changes to Fees and Charges as approved by Cabinet on 24th January 2023, be noted;

i)     the proposed 2023/24 Capital Strategy (Appendix 2), be noted and approved;

j)     the proposed 2023/24 Treasury Management Strategy (Appendix 3), be noted and approved;

k)    approval be given for the recently notified successful bid for funding of £2.012m from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (Phase 3b) being added to the Capital Programme. (Paragraph 5.6).