Members gave consideration to the Finance Manager’s comprehensive report and appendices on the draft Revenue Budget proposals for 2021/22.  The budget proposals had been scrutinised by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) on 25 January 2021 and a copy of the Minutes arising from the OSC meeting had been appended to the report for Cabinet’s consideration.  It was noted that the budget had been prepared ahead of the finalisation of the Council’s new Corporate Plan and it was likely that the Council’s finances, staffing and physical resources may need to be redirected into new priorities and services over the coming months.  Appendix A to the report summarised the draft Revenue Budget; Appendix B the detailed budgets over the various services the Council provided, Appendix C detailed the proposed Special Expenses for 2021/22, Appendix D the Earmarked Reserves, Appendix E the Minutes from the OSC meeting held on 25 January 2021 and Appendix F the Budget consultation report.

Members were reminded that the Council no longer received any Revenue Support Grant from the Government and would be wholly reliant on revenue from business rates, council tax, charges for services, income generation and specific grants for discreet services. Whilst at the time of writing the settlement was still draft, it was not anticipated that it would change when it was finalised. 

The draft settlement did however confirm a specific additional COVID-19 grant of £519,000 to support the ongoing effects of the pandemic in 2021/22.  The announcement also included grant to extend the help for residents through the Council Tax Reduction Support scheme (CTRS).  Based on the provisional numbers, this was approximately £146,000 for Rother, £1.46m in total including preceptors.  This funding only effected the Collection Fund and did not meet the loss of income due to the increase in the number of households claiming CTRS. 

Other Government grants included £271,770 New Homes Bonus which was higher than the previous forecast. This had been incorporated into the draft budget to reduce the use of reserves as previously agreed by Members, however, as this was a one-year grant, no ongoing reliance of this income could be assumed, pending the outcome of the review of this grant.

The Council Tax Referendum principles that applied to the Council for 2021/22 allowed an increase of up to 2% or £5 whichever was the greater. To ensure the Council remained within this limit (after taking account of the increase in Special Expenses), the budget assumed an increase of £4.61 (2.5%) to £188.71 at Council Tax Band D for 2021/22. This brought a total Council Tax income for the Council of £7.1m.

The Council remained in the East Sussex 50% Business Rate pooling arrangement for 20201/22. An assessment had been undertaken of the risk due to the financial impact of the pandemic on the local economy and on balance it was expected that it would still benefit the County as a whole to remain pooled.

The Council’s Capital Programme totalled some £187m with £80m currently without secured funding. A  ...  view the full minutes text for item 98