Agenda item

REPORT OF THE CABINET - BUDGETS AND COUNCIL TAX DECLARATION 2011/12

Meeting of Council, Tuesday 22nd February 2011 7.30 pm (Item 133.)

To consider the attached report.

Minutes:

Mover: Councillor Whitbread – Finance and Economic Development Portfolio Holder

The Portfolio Holder submitted a report regarding budgets and Council Tax declaration for 2011/12.

Councillor Whitbread reported that good financial planning in the past had placed this Council in a better position than many others to meet the savings required for 2011/12. As a result it had not been necessary to make major changes to service provision for the forthcoming financial year and no increase was proposed for the District Council Tax. He cautioned however, that greater challenges would need to be met in future years.

The Portfolio Holder reported on the process for preparing the budget which had involved all members through Overview and Scrutiny, the Finance and Performance Management Cabinet Committee and the Cabinet.

Councillor Whitbread advised of the need to save some £1.3m in 2012/13 and pointed out that it would be extremely difficult to maintain the Council’s current service levels and members should accept that a degree of change was inevitable.

The Portfolio Holder expressed his thanks to fellow Portfolio Holders and officers for their input into the proposals before the Council.

Report as first moved ADOPTED

RESOLVED:

(1) That the list of CSB growth and savings for the 2011/12 budget (set out in Annex 1) be approved;

(2) That the list of District Development Fund items for the 2011/12 budget (set out in Annex 2) be approved;

(3) That the revenue estimates for 2011/12 and the draft Capital Programme for 2011/12 be approved as set out in Annexes 3, 4 (a-i) and 5 including all contributions to and from reserves as set out in the attached Annexes;

(4) That the medium term financial forecast be approved as set out in Annexes 8 a and 8 b;

(5) That the 2011/12 HRA budget be approved and that the application of rent increases and decreases in accordance with the Government’s rent reforms and the Council’s approved rent strategy, resulting in an average increase of 7.2% from £76.66 to £82.19, be approved.

Declaration of Council Tax

(6) That it be noted that on 9 November 2010, the Finance and Economic Development Portfolio Holder in consultation with the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee calculated the following amounts for the year 2011/12 in accordance with regulations made under Section 33(5) and 34(4) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992:

(a) 54,609.2 being the amount calculated by the Council in accordance with Regulation 3 of the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) Regulations 1992 as the Council Tax Base for the year;

(b) Part of the Council's Area Tax Base No.

Essex County Council (General Expenses) 54,609.2

Essex Police Authority 54,609.2

Essex Fire Authority 54,609.2

Epping Forest District Council (General Expenses) 54,609.2

Abbess, Beauchamp & Berners Roding 199.7

Buckhurst Hill 5,301.8

Chigwell 5,983.1

Epping Town 5,110.8

Epping Upland 414.9

Fyfield 410.4

High Ongar 575.0

Lambourne 936.6

Loughton Town 13,038.3

Matching 333.9

Moreton, Bobbingworth and The Lavers 669.1

Nazeing 2,108.1

North Weald Bassett 2,569.2

Ongar 2,767.9

Roydon 1,326.5

Sheering 1,367.4

Stanford Rivers 364.9

Stapleford Abbotts 512.4

Stapleford Tawney 72.3

Theydon Bois 1,979.7

Theydon Garnon 66.5

Theydon Mount 108.4

Waltham Abbey Town 8,145.1

Willingale 247.2

being the amounts calculated by the Council in accordance with Regulation 6 of the Regulations as the amounts of the Council Tax Base for the year for dwellings in those parts of the area to which one or more special items relate;

(7) That the following amounts be now calculated for the year 2011/12 in accordance with sections 32 to 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992:

(a) £116,779,498 being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 32(2) (a) - (e) of the Act;

(b) £98,161,497 being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 32(3) (a) - (c) of the Act;

(c) £18,618,001 being the amount by which the aggregate at (a) above exceeds the aggregate at (b) calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 32(4) of the Act as its budget requirement for the year;

(d) £7,386,942 being the aggregate of the sums which the Council estimates will be payable for the year into its General Fund in respect of redistributed Non Domestic Rates and Revenue Support Grant and increased by the amount the Council estimates will be transferred in the year from its Collection Fund to the General Fund in accordance with Section 97(3) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 and the amount which the Council estimates will be transferred from the Collection Fund to the General Fund pursuant to the Collection Fund (Community Charges) (England) Directions 1994 made under Section 98(4) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988;

(e) £205.66 being the amount at (c) above, less the amount at (d) above, all divided by the amount at (6)(a) above, calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 33(1) of the Act as the basic amount of its Council Tax for the year;

(f) £3,106,848 being the aggregate amount of all special items referred to in Section 34(1) of the Act;

(g) £148.77 being the amount at (e) above, less the result given by dividing the amount at (f) above by the amount of (6) (a) above, calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 34(2) of the Act as the basic amount of its Council Tax for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which no special item relates;

(h) Part of the Council's Area Amount

Abbess, Beauchamp & Berners Roding 173.81

Buckhurst Hill 218.02

Chigwell 185.20

Epping Town 232.61

Epping Upland 176.49

Fyfield 174.17

High Ongar 172.25

Lambourne 180.65

Loughton Town 197.95

Matching 180.22

Moreton Bobbingworth and The Lavers 168.63

Nazeing 183.15

North Weald Bassett 200.23

Ongar 218.67

Roydon 170.50

Sheering 171.92

Stanford Rivers 180.83

Stapleford Abbotts 161.72

Stapleford Tawney 167.84

Theydon Bois 200.94

Theydon Garnon 163.36

Theydon Mount 162.67

Waltham Abbey Town 243.23

Willingale 166.97

being the amounts given by adding to the amount at (7)(g) above the amounts of the special item or items relating to dwellings in those parts of the Council's area mentioned above divided in each case by the amount at (6)(b) above, calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 34(3) of the Act as the basic amounts of its Council Tax for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which one or more special items relate;

(i) the amounts shown in Annex 6 to this report, being the amounts given by multiplying the amounts at (7)(h) above by the number which is the proportion set out in Section 5(1) of the Act, is applicable to dwellings listed in a particular valuation band, divided by the number which in that proportion is applicable to dwellings listed in valuation band D, calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 36(1) of the Act as the amounts to be taken into account for the year in respect of categories of dwellings listed in different valuation bands;

(8) That it be noted that for the year 2011/12 the major precepting authorities have stated that the amounts shown in Annex 7 Part A (tabled) are the precepts issued to the Council in accordance with Section 40 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 for each of the categories of dwellings shown;

(9) That, having calculated the aggregate in each case of the amounts at (7) (i) and (8) above, the Council in accordance with Section 30(2) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 hereby sets the amounts in Annex 7 Part B (tabled) as the amounts of Council Tax for the year 2011/12 for each of the categories of dwellings shown;

(10) That the Council's policy of retaining revenue balances at no lower than £4.0M or 25% of the net budget requirement whichever is the higher for the four year period to 2013/14 be amended to no lower than £4.0M or 25% of the net budget requirement whichever is the higher during the four year period up to and including 2014/15;

(11) That the recommendations included in the report on the Prudential Indicators and the Treasury Management Strategy for 2011/12 (set out in Annex 9) be approved; and

(12) That the report of the Chief Financial Officer on the robustness of the estimates for the purposes of the Council’s 2011/12 budgets and the adequacy of the reserves (see Annex 10) be noted.

Supporting documents: