The report of the Assistant Director Finance and Procurement (Document “AZ”) provides Members with details of the Council’s Revenue Estimates for 2018/19 and 2019/20.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL

Executive is asked to approve the following recommendations to Council:

1          REVENUE ESTIMATES 2018/19

              (a)     That the Base Revenue Forecast of £370.995m for 2018/19 as set out in this report “AZ” (Revenue Estimates) be approved.

(b)      That Executive Document “AZ” and the consequent net reduction in investments of £7.697m in 2018/19 be approved.

(c)       That Executive Document “AZ” and the service savings and additional income of £6.138m in 2018/19 be approved.

(d)    That it be noted that within the revenue budget there is a net contribution of            £2.746m to revenue reserves in 2018/19.

(e)       That Executive Document “AZ” and the service savings proposals for 2018/19 be approved, requiring the Chief Executive, Strategic Directors and Directors to take necessary action during 2018/19 to ensure those savings are fully achievable for 2019/20.

(f)   That the comments of the Assistant Director Finance and Procurement set out in Executive Document “AZ” on the robustness of the estimates and the adequacy of reserves taking account of the recommendations made at 8.1(a) to (e) above be noted.

2        PROPOSED COUNCIL TAX 2018/19

2.1 That it be noted that the projected council tax base and expenditure forecasts outlined in this report together with the 2018/19 resources and the budget variations approved at 8.1(b) and 8.1(c) above produce a proposed Band D council tax of £1,333.21 for 2018/19. This includes a social care precept of 3.0% which is to be ring fenced for expenditure on adult social care.

3       PAYMENT DATES FOR COUNCIL TAX AND NATIONAL NON-DOMESTIC RATES

3.1    That the first instalment date for payment of National Non-Domestic Rates and Council Tax shall be specified by the s151 Officer.

4        DELEGATION TO OFFICERS

4.1    That for the avoidance of doubt and without prejudice to any of the powers contained in Article 14 of Part 2 of the Council's Constitution on the Function of Officers, the s151 Officer shall have full delegated powers to act on behalf of the Council on all matters relating to the Council Tax, Non-Domestic Rates and Accounts Receivable Debtors including (without prejudice to the generality of the delegation) assessments, determinations, recovery, enforcement and, in accordance with the statutory scheme, full delegated powers to act on behalf of the Council with regard to all aspects of the granting of Discretionary and Hardship Rate Relief to qualifying ratepayers.

5          PREPARATION OF ACCOUNTS

           (a)         That in preparing the Final Accounts for 2017/18, the s151 Officer be empowered to take appropriate steps to secure the best advantage for the Council's financial position.

           (b)         That the s151 Officer be empowered to deal with items which involve the transfer of net spending between the financial years 2017/18 and 2018/19 in a manner which secures the best advantage for the Council's financial position.

           (c)         That the s151 Officer report any action taken in pursuance of 8.5(a) and 8.5 (b) above when reporting on the Final Accounts for 2017/18.

6            COUNCIL TAX REQUIREMENT 2018/19

           (a)    That the council tax base figures for 2018/19 calculated by the Council at its meeting on 9 January 2018 in respect of the whole of the Council’s area and individual parish and town council areas be noted.

(b)     That the only special items for 2018/19 under Section 35 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 are local parish and town council precepts and no expenses are to be treated as special expenses under Section 35(1) (b) of that Act.

(c)     That the Council Tax Requirement, excluding parish and town council precepts, be calculated as follows:

(d)  That the precepts of parish and town councils be noted and the resulting basic council tax amounts for particular areas of the Council be calculated as follows:

          (e)     That the council tax amounts for dwellings in different valuation bands in respect of the Council’s budget requirement, taking into account parish and town council precepts applicable to only part of the Council’s area, be calculated as follows, which includes the 3% social care precept:

(f)     That it be noted that for the year 2018/19 the Police Crime and Commissioner has issued the following precept. As the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority (WYFRA) will not be meeting to set its precept until 16^th February (after this report has been published) the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority precept shown in the table below is based on an estimate of 2.99%. Executive will be provided with the precept issued by WYFRA at the meeting of Executive on 20 February 2018.

            (g)  That having calculated the aggregate in each case of the amounts at (e) and (f) above, the Council set the following amounts of council tax for 2018/19 in each of the categories of dwellings shown below which includes the 3% social care precept:

 (h)    That Council notes the movement in Band D equivalent charges for 2018/19 over 2017/18 as set out in the table below.

* The West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority will be setting their precept on Friday 16 February 2018. The amount shown in the above table is the estimated precept based on a 2.99% increase.

(Corporate Overview & Scrutiny Committee)     

(Tom Castleton – 01274 434472)

The report of the Assistant Director Finance and Procurement (Document “AZ”) provided Members with details of the Council’s Revenue Estimates for 2018/19 and 2019/20.

The Chair emphasised that there had been a long period of consultation on the budget proposals and difficult decisions about how to balance the budget had to be made in a challenging environment due to the enormous cuts from Central Government.

The resolution to this item, was presented and agreed in light of the Labour Group’s amended budget recommendation to Council (See Minute 101 ). This was followed by agreement on the Schools Budget and Capital Investment Plan proposals.