Decision details

To consider and recommend to County Council the Revenue Budget 2022/23 and the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) including the:
• Revenue Plan
• Capital Plan
• Treasury Management
• Prudential Indicators

In regard to the Revenue Budget, having taken account of the comments made by Executive Members, and all the relevant information provided at the informal meeting of Executive Members on 25 January 2022, the Chief Executive Officer agreed to use his emergency delegated powers to recommend to Full Council that:
a) Note the Section 25 assurance statement provided by the Corporate Director, Strategic Resources regarding the robustness of the estimates and the adequacy of the reserves (paragraph 9.13) and the risk assessment of the MTFS detailed in Section 10.
b) A combined council tax increase for 2022/23 of 3.99% be agreed;
c) Agree that in the event that the level of overall external funding (including from the final Local Government Settlement) resulted in a variance of less than £5m in 2022/23, then the difference be addressed by a transfer to / from the Strategic Capacity Unallocated Reserve in line with paragraph 4.2.6, with such changes being made to Appendix E as appropriate.
d) Authorise the Corporate Director – Children and Young People’s Service, in consultation with the Corporate Director, Strategic Resources and the Executive Members for Schools and Finance, to take the final decision on the allocation of the Schools Budget including High Needs, Early Years and the Central Schools Services Block (paragraph 3.1.19).
e) Approve the Medium Term Financial Strategy for 2022/23 to 2024/25, and its caveats, as laid out in Section 3.0 and Appendix G, in line with the proposed council tax option.
f) Authorise the Corporate Director – Business & Environmental Services, in consultation with the Executive Members for BES, to carry out all necessary actions, including consultation where he considers it appropriate, to implement the range of savings as set out in Appendix B1 (BES 1 to 3).
g) Authorise the Corporate Director – Health and Adult Services, in consultation with the Executive Members for HAS, to carry out all necessary actions, including consultation where he considers it appropriate, to implement the range of savings as set out in Appendix B1 (HAS 1 to 6).
h) Authorise the Corporate Director – Children and Young People’s Services, in consultation with the Executive Members for CYPS, to carry out all necessary actions, including consultation where he considers it appropriate, to implement the range of savings as set out in Appendix B1 (CYPS 1 to 4).
i) Agree, in consultation with the Executive Members for Central Services, to carry out all necessary actions, including consultation where he considers it appropriate, to implement the range of savings as set out in Appendix B1 (CS 1 to 5).
j) Agree that any outcomes requiring changes following Recommendations f), g), h) and i) above be brought back to the Executive to consider and if necessary, where changes are required to the existing major policy framework, make recommendations to full Council.
k) Retain the existing policy target for the minimum level of the General Working Balance and set at £28m in line with paragraphs 4.5.4 to 4.5.5 and Appendix F.
l) Approve the attached pay policy statement (Appendix I) covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 as set out in Section 7.
m) Approve the updated LGPS Employers Discretion Policy as described in paragraphs 7.6 to 7.8 and as set out in Appendix J
n) Agree the delegation arrangements referred to in Section 12 that authorise the Corporate Directors to implement the Budget proposals contained in the report for their respective service areas and for the Chief Executive in those areas where there are cross-Council proposals.
o) Give regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty (identified in Section 8 and Appendix K) in approving the Budget proposals contained in the revenue budget section of the report.

In regard to the Capital Plan MTFS 2022-2023, having taken account of the comments made by Executive Members, and all the relevant information provided at the informal meeting of Executive Members on 25 January 2022, the Chief Executive Officer agreed to use his emergency delegated powers to:
a) Approve the refreshed Capital Plan summarised at paragraph 3.4, and recommend it for approval to County Council;
b) Approve the proposal to carry forward £500k of the Property Rationalisation underspend at 31 March 2022 for a further two financial years (2022/23 to 2023/24) as set out at paragraph 3.18, and recommend it for approval to County Council;
c) Delegate authority to the Corporate Director, Business & Environmental Services in consultation with the Corporate Director, Strategic Resources; the Executive Member for Open to Business; and the Executive Member for Finance to allocate the £3.5m of funding should it be required as a local contribution towards schemes for submission into the Levelling Up Fund as set out in the Table in paragraph 5.2;
d) Agree that no action be taken at this stage to allocate any additional capital resources (paragraph 6.7)

In regard to Treasury Management, having taken account of the comments made by Executive Members, and all the relevant information provided at the informal meeting of Executive Members on 25 January 2022, the Chief Executive Officer agreed to use his emergency delegated powers to recommend to County Council:
a) The Treasury Management Strategy at Annex 1, including:
b) The Capital Prudential Indicators (Appendix A), Borrowing Strategy and Treasury Prudential Indicators (Appendix B) and Annual Investment Strategy 2022/23 (Appendix C), and in particular;
i. an authorised limit for external debt of £566.3m in 2022/23;

Under his delegated decision making powers in the Officers’ Delegation Scheme in the Council’s Constitution, the Chief Executive Officer has power, in cases of emergency, to take any decision which could be taken by the Council, the Executive or a committee.

Following on from the expiry of the Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 (“the 2020 Regulations”), which allowed for committee meetings to be held remotely, the County Council resolved at its meeting on 5 May 2021 (before the expiry of the Regulations) that, for the present time, in light of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic circumstances, remote live-broadcast committee meetings should continue as informal meetings of the committee Members, with any formal decisions required being taken by the Chief Executive Officer under his emergency decision making powers and after consultation with other Officers and Members as appropriate and after taking into account any views of the relevant Committee Members and all relevant information. This approach has been periodically reviewed since that time and will be further reviewed by full Council at its February 2022 meeting.

The Chief Executive Officer took all relevant information into account in exercising his emergency delegated powers in this matter, including considering the views of the Executive Members, and made the decision set out above for the reasons set out in the body of the report.

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