Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Committee Rooms 2 and 3, Trafford Town Hall, Talbot Road, Stretford M32 0TH

Contact: Jo Maloney 

Items
No. Item

50.

QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC

A maximum of 15 minutes will be allocated to public questions submitted in writing to Democratic Services (democratic.services@trafford.gov.uk) by 4 p.m. on the working day prior to the meeting. Questions must be relevant to items appearing on the agenda and will be submitted in the order in which they were received.

Minutes:

It was reported that no public questions had been received in respect of items on the current meeting’s agenda.

51.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members to give notice of any interest and the nature of that interest relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the adopted Code of Conduct.

Minutes:

No declarations were made by Executive Members.

52.

EXECUTIVE'S DRAFT REVENUE BUDGET PROPOSALS 2020/21 AND MTFS 2021-23 pdf icon PDF 1 MB

To consider a report of the Executive Member for Finance and Investment and the Corporate Director, Finance and Systems.

Decision:

1. That the 2020/21 to 2022/23 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 2020/21 (comprising 2% adult social care precept and 1.99% general increase) and by similar levels for 2021/22 and 2022/23.

 

3. That the remaining budget gap for the years 2020/21 to 2022/23 be noted.

 

4. That it be noted that 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 Reserves Policy included at Section 5 of the report  and the Service Reserves Programme at Annex G to the report be approved and adopted.

 

6. That, in order to allow prompt consultation and referral to Scrutiny, this decision be deemed urgent, and not subject to call-in.

Minutes:

The Executive Member for Finance and Investment and the Corporate Director of Finance and Systems submitted a report which set out, for the purposes of consultation and scrutiny, the Executive’s updated 3 year budget strategy proposals and draft revenue budget proposals for 2020/21 and Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for the period 2021-23.

 

The Executive Member for Finance and Investment drew Members’ attention to key issues and drivers underpinning the current proposals, including an additional increase in the envisaged budget gap arising from a recent and unexpected variation by Government of the PWLB interest rate.

 

The Executive’s thanks were accorded to Finance officers for their efforts in collating the proposals which responded to corporate priorities whilst minimising, as far as was currently possible, the extent of the budget gap. An opportunity was provided for Members to raise questions and issues on the report’s content. A number of factual responses and clarifications were provided. In cases where queries related to the merits of the inclusion or non-inclusion of certain proposals, Members were advised that there would be an opportunity to explore these issues in detail as part of the envisaged Budget Scrutiny process, which the current report was intended to inform.

 

In this context, since the report was explicitly intended for Scrutiny referral, and to allow the consultation process to be undertaken with as much notice as possible, the Executive agreed that it would be appropriate for the current proposals to be exempted from the call-in procedure

 

            RESOLVED -

 

(1)       That the 2020/21 to 2022/23 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 2020/21 (comprising 2% adult social care precept and 1.99% general increase) and by similar levels for 2021/22 and 2022/23.

 

(3)       That the remaining budget gap for the years 2020/21 to 2022/23 be noted.

 

(4)       That it be noted that 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 Reserves Policy included at Section 5 of the report and the Service Reserves Programme at Annex G to the report be approved and adopted.

 

(6)       That, in order to allow prompt consultation and referral to Scrutiny, this decision be deemed urgent, and not subject to call-in.