Agenda item

The Leader of the Council and Lead Members for Governance and Customer Services, Children and Schools, Transport and Environmental Services, Housing and Community Safety, Health and Wellbeing, Inclusive Growth and Skills and Planning and Regulation presented the Leadership Proposals for the Revenue Budget 2021/22 and Medium Term Financial Strategy 2021/22-2023/24. On completion of the presentation:

 

It was moved by Councillor Swindlehurst,

Seconded by Councillor Akram,

 

“That the statutory S25 report of the S151 officer at Appendix M be noted and taken into account in determining:

 

(a)  The proposed budget for 2021/22;

(b)  The medium term financial plans for 2021/22 – 2023/24;

(c)  The level of reserves. 

 

That the following be noted:

 

(d)  The use of £5.106m of Capital Receipts to fund the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) in 2021/22 and £3.144m in 2022/23;

 

(e)  In 2021/22, £12.200m of revenue spend will be capitalised in accordance with the Capitalisation Directive from MHCLG (see section 14);

 

(f)  The Dedicated Schools Grant [DSG] settlement for 2021/22 (see Section 13) and the allocation of £193.905m as set out in Appendix L;

 

That the following be approved:

 

(g)  That the Council Tax Support Scheme (CTSS) is not to be to varied or revised for 2021/22;

 

(h)  With regard to the 2021/22 General Fund and Housing Revenue Account budgets, and the Medium Term Financial Strategy:

 

  I.  The General Fund Budget Requirement of £133.574m for 2021/22;

  II.  Proposed savings of £15.576m for 2021/22 and overall savings of £23.573m for the three years to 2023/24;

  III.  Growth and pressures of £12.593m for 2021/22 and overall pressures of £19.178m to 2023/24;

  IV.  The Housing Revenue Account budget for 2021/22 of £36.790m as set out in Appendix F;

  V.  The forecast reserves of £14.458m at the end of 2021/22 as set out in Appendix G;

 

(i)  The strategy for the use of flexible capital receipts to deliver transformation and ongoing savings as set out in Appendix H;

 

(j)  The calculations for determining the Council tax requirement for the year 2021/22 in accordance with the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as set out in the Council Tax Resolution in Appendix J;

 

(k)  The Council increase the Council tax for a band D property by £70.83 for 2021/22, giving a band D Council Tax of £1,490.30 per year, excluding the precepts from Police, Fire and parishes as set out below:

 

  i.  Its general band D Council Tax by 1.99%, the maximum permitted without a referendum as previously planned; and

 

  ii.  Its Adult Social Care Precept by 3.00% as confirmed by Government in the Final Local Government Settlement.

 

Notes the following Council tax increases and precepts as detailed in Appendix J:

 

(l)  Parish Precepts of £185,244;

 

(m)The Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley has increased Council tax for a band D property to £231.28 per annum, a 6.9% increase on 2020/21, resulting in a precept of £9,442,862;

 

(n)  The Royal Berkshire Fire Authority has agreed an increase of £1.35 for a band D property to £68.95 per annum, a 1.99% increase on 2020/21, resulting in a precept of £2,815,139;

 

(o)  This gives a total Band D Council Tax of £1,790.53 plus any Parish precept where applicable set out in Appendix J.

 

The Fees and Charges for 2021/22 as set out in Appendix K.”

 

Members of the Opposition spoke on the Revenue Budget 2021/22 and Medium Term Financial Strategy 2021/22-2023/24 proposals, following which

 

It was moved by Councillor Strutton, as an amendment,

Seconded by Councillor Wright,

 

“Growth

 

Christmas Relaxation of parking charges - Free parking in Slough Town Centre from November to January.  This would result in a total growth of £0.440m.

Shop front enhancement grant – To support local businesses who rent their property from Slough Borough Council - a shop front enhancement grant – we would provide a one-year grant based on £1 per square foot at a total cost of £0.073m.

Funding for a local community engagement organisation – This increases awareness of air quality and stimulates an interest in local activism to tackle the issue here in Slough. We propose to provide £0.048m in 2021/22.

Expand Provision of Free School Meals- Additional support for vulnerable families in Slough, expanding the provision of good quality Free School Meals across the Borough during the summer holidays.  We propose to provide £0.100m in 2021/22.

One to One Tuition for Vulnerable Children- We pledge to support our most vulnerable children in Slough, by providing a targeted One to One tuition programme, for those identified as being most impacted by COVID-19 by our education teams, to support them in their education. We propose to provide £0.100m in 2021/22.

Promotion and Employment of permanent staff- To tackle this authorities over reliance on agency and contract staff, we propose a designated fund with the objective of promoting, and covering some of the additional recruitment costs, of moving some of the contract/agency staff to permanent roles in this authority. We propose to provide £0.232m for 2021/22.

HR fund- To provide additional support to tackle ongoing HR issues in regards change management processes of moving from such an overreliance on contract/agency staff, to full time positions. We propose to provide £0.050m in 2021/22 to cover this.

Savings

 

Agency/Interim staff – the opposition note that in the latest figures SBC has provided, it is engaging 284 agency/interim staff. A number have been with the council for many years and we note that this is the most expensive way to populate an organisation.  We also note that the Administration has a £1.5m saving in the budget in this area.  Based on the figures provided, we calculate that they will have to exit in the region of 50 interim staff to achieve this.  Our proposal is to double this saving and note it could impact up to potentially 100 agency staff (up to 35% of the current cohort).  This will increase the savings in this area from £1.5m to £3m. We propose that no front-line care staff would be exited under this proposal, protecting our most vulnerable residents.

 

Sale of Windsor Road - We propose to sell the Windsor Road building.  This will result in a capital receipt of £21m net of leaseback which can be used to repay debt.  The consequential savings on interest charges will be £0.2m in 2021/22.

 

Reduction in the Collection of Green Bins –Expanding the proposed reduction in the collection of our green bins by an additional month, covering November-February at an additional saving of £0.024m.

Make CCTV fully funded by partners – rationalising provision and negotiating fully funding by partner agencies. This will deliver £0.180m.

 

Council Tax

 

Resulting from our changes above our proposals for Council Tax are as follows:

1.  Setting the adult social care precept increase at £42.58 providing the full 3.00% uplift in the adult social care element of the Council Tax.  This will provide for the full growth in adult social care as identified in the budget report.

2.  Setting the general Slough Borough Council element of the tax at a 0.75% increase on this year’s figure.

This would give a total council tax at band D of £1,472.20, a 3.75% increase overall on the previous year’s figure.

 

3.  The table below shows the level of the Council Tax over all eight bands (precepts from external bodies exclude):

Band	£
A	981.80
B	1,145.43
C	1,309.07
D	1,472.70
E	1,799.97
F	2,127.24
G	2,454.50
H	2,945.40

 

Reserves

 

The outstanding balance resulting from these proposals is £0.100m which we propose to deposit in the council’s general reserve.”

 

The amendments were put to the vote and lost with 4 votes for, 31 against and 2 abstentions.

 

The original recommendations were put and carried and, in accordance with the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, a record of the vote was taken as follows:-

 

There voted for the recommendations:-

 

Councillors Ajaib, Akram, Ali, Anderson, Bains, Basra, Begum, Carter, A.Cheema, H.Cheema, Dar, Davis, Dhaliwal, Gahir, Hulme, Mann, Matloob, Minhas, Mohammad, Nazir, Pantelic, D.Parmar, S.Parmar, Plenty, Qaseem, Sabah, A.Sandhu, R.Sandhu, Sharif and Swindlehurst. ……….…………….  30

 

There voted against the recommendations:

 

Councillors Kelly, Smith, Strutton and Wright  ………………………………….  4

 

There abstained from voting:

 

The Worshipful, The Mayor Councillor Brooker…………………………………  1

 

Resolved  -

 

That the statutory S25 report of the S151 officer at Appendix M be noted and taken into account in determining:

 

(a)  The proposed budget for 2021/22;

(b)  The medium term financial plans for 2021/22 – 2023/24;

(c)  The level of reserves. 

 

That the following be noted:

 

(d)  The use of £5.106m of Capital Receipts to fund the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) in 2021/22 and £3.144m in 2022/23;

 

(e)  In 2021/22, £12.200m of revenue spend will be capitalised in accordance with the Capitalisation Directive from MHCLG (see section 14);

 

(f)  The Dedicated Schools Grant [DSG] settlement for 2021/22 (see Section 13) and the allocation of £193.905m as set out in Appendix L;

 

That the following be approved:

 

(g)  That the Council Tax Support Scheme (CTSS) is not to be to varied or revised for 2021/22;

 

(h)  With regard to the 2021/22 General Fund and Housing Revenue Account budgets, and the Medium Term Financial Strategy:

 

  I.  The General Fund Budget Requirement of £133.574m for 2021/22;

  II.  Proposed savings of £15.576m for 2021/22 and overall savings of £23.573m for the three years to 2023/24;

  III.  Growth and pressures of £12.593m for 2021/22 and overall pressures of £19.178m to 2023/24;

  IV.  The Housing Revenue Account budget for 2021/22 of £36.790m as set out in Appendix F;

  V.  The forecast reserves of £14.458m at the end of 2021/22 as set out in Appendix G;

 

(i)  The strategy for the use of flexible capital receipts to deliver transformation and ongoing savings as set out in Appendix H;

 

(j)  The calculations for determining the Council tax requirement for the year 2021/22 in accordance with the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as set out in the Council Tax Resolution in Appendix J;

 

(k)  The Council increase the Council tax for a band D property by £70.83 for 2021/22, giving a band D Council Tax of £1,490.30 per year, excluding the precepts from Police, Fire and parishes as set out below:

 

  i.  Its general band D Council Tax by 1.99%, the maximum permitted without a referendum as previously planned; and

 

  ii.  Its Adult Social Care Precept by 3.00% as confirmed by Government in the Final Local Government Settlement.

 

Notes the following Council tax increases and precepts as detailed in Appendix J:

 

(l)  Parish Precepts of £185,244;

 

(m)The Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley has increased Council tax for a band D property to £231.28 per annum, a 6.9% increase on 2020/21, resulting in a precept of £9,442,862;

 

(n)  The Royal Berkshire Fire Authority has agreed an increase of £1.35 for a band D property to £68.95 per annum, a 1.99% increase on 2020/21, resulting in a precept of £2,815,139;

 

(o)  This gives a total Band D Council Tax of £1,790.53 plus any Parish precept where applicable set out in Appendix J.

 

The Fees and Charges for 2021/22 as set out in Appendix K.