1. That the 2019/20 to 2021/22 proposed budget strategy, draft revenue budget and MTFS including the income and savings proposals be approved for the purposes of consultation only (where necessary) and that these proposals will also be referred to the Scrutiny Committee for their consideration.

2. That the proposal be noted to increase Council Tax by 3.99% in 2019/20 (comprising 1% adult social care precept and 2.99% general increase) and by 2.99% for 2020/21 and 2021/22.

3. That the remaining budget gap for the years 2019/20 to 2021/22 be noted.

4. That it be noted that the draft proposals are subject to various consultation exercises, analysis and impact assessments, movements in core funding, specific grants, costing and robustness assessments.

5. That the Asset Investment Strategy included at Annex F to the report be approved and adopted.

6. That these decisions be deemed urgent for the reasons set out in the report, and thus not subject to call-in.

To enable consultation with the public, businesses (s65 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992), stakeholders, staff and Scrutiny Committee to take place.

The budget proposals included in this report assume an overall increase to the level of council tax of 3.99% in 2019/20 comprising an increase of 1% for the ‘adult social care precept’ to be earmarked for adult social care expenditure and 2.99% general increase in the ‘relevant basic amount’. An alternative option could be to increase its ‘relevant basic amount of council tax’ above these levels, however this would exceed the referendum limits, which would mean a local referendum was required. Alternatively not increasing council tax by the level recommended in this report, subject to the final referendum level being notified in December, would increase the overall funding gap by up to £3.79m in 2019/20 which would mean further reductions to expenditure on council services were necessary.