To consider the Medium Term Financial Strategy 2020-2025, 2020-2021 Budget and Capital Programme for 2020-2030.
Minutes:
Council considered the Medium-Term Financial Strategy for 2020-25, which included a Financial Resource Model for 2020-25, the revenue budget for 2020-21 and capital programme for 2020-21 to 2029-30. (Copy filed with the signed minutes).
More than 10 Members stood to request a recorded vote on the budget.
Just prior to the start of the meeting an addendum to the budget proposing a Council Tax increase of 4.8% had been circulated by email to Councillors. The Chair advised she was prepared to accept the report as it was a minor amendment to the budget. County Councillor Pete Roberts raised a point of order noting that the Constitution only allowed minor amendments to be accepted if they had arisen out of debate and that there had not been a debate. Council was adjourned at 11.40 and reconvened at 12.00. The Chair advised that she accepted Councillor Roberts’ point of order and the Portfolio Holder for Finance withdrew the addendum.
The Portfolio Holder for Finance presented the budget report. The budget was supported by the Medium Term Financial Strategy which set out how revenue and capital resources would be used to deliver the priorities set out in Vision 2025. The MTFS provided a set of clear principles which would drive the Council’s budget and spending decisions over 2020-25 which Members and others could examine and judge the Council’s financial performance against. The Portfolio Holder for Finance noted that services continued to perform well with Powys ranking 5th in Wales in terms of overall performance using Public Accountability Measures. Work on school transformation was continuing at pace and there had been sustained improvement in Children’s Services performance.
The Portfolio Holder for Finance advised that the settlement gave the Council a cash increase of £9.5 million which, when adjusted for transfers into the formula of specific grants, was a 4.2% increase on the previous year. This represented the largest increase in funding for a decade and followed the Cabinet’s lobbying of Welsh Government to raise the issues facing rural authorities supported with the evidence provided through the Rural Cost Analysis. The budget included an additional £6 million each for schools and Children’s Services to meet cost pressures. The budget also included an additional £0.5 million a year for roads’ maintenance, an area highlighted for concern during the public budget consultation exercise in the autumn.
Welsh Government had given no indication of the future allocations for 2021-22 onwards, but in view of current economic and fiscal projections and in the absence of other information the MTFS set out a worst likely scenario predicated on an assumption that Aggregated External Finance would reduce by -2% for 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25. Based on these assumptions the total recurrent reductions required from 2021-22 to 2024-25 amounted to around £49 million. £10.79 million of cost reduction proposals were proposed in the 2020-21 budget.
Members of the opposition groups spoke against the budget arguing that the proposed Council Tax increase was unaffordable for residents and that some of the savings were high risk and undeliverable. The Chair of the Finance Panel also raised points about the affordability of the rise, noting that 40% of properties in Powys were in Bands E to G and that Powys had a higher proportion of pensioners on fixed incomes than the Welsh average. He also had concerns that capital receipts were not being fully utilised for transformation projects and at the proportion of the budget spent on Education and Social Services. Some Members criticised the quality of the impact assessments saying that they lacked confidence in them in the absence of a report analysing why some of last year’s savings had not been met.
Council adjourned at 13.22 and reconvened at 14.06 and continued the debate on the budget.
Present County Councillor B Baynham
County Councillors MC Alexander, J Berriman, G Breeze, J Charlton, L V Corfield, K W Curry, A W Davies, B Davies, D E Davies, M J Dorrance, E Durrant, D O Evans, J Evans, L Fitzpatrick, L George, J Gibson-Watt, M R Harris, S M Hayes, H Hulme, A Jenner, E A Jones, D R Jones, E Jones, G Jones, E M Jones, J Jones, M J Jones, D Jones-Poston, F H Jump, K Laurie-Parry, H Lewis, K Lewis, MC Mackenzie, I McIntosh, S McNicholas, DW Meredith, G Morgan, JG Morris, R Powell, WD Powell, P C Pritchard, G Pugh, J Pugh, G W Ratcliffe, L Rijnenberg, L Roberts, P Roberts, K M Roberts-Jones, D Rowlands, K S Silk, D Selby, D A Thomas, T J Van-Rees, E Vaughan, M Weale, J Wilkinson, A Williams, G I S Williams, D H Williams, J Williams, J M Williams and S L Williams
The Chair of the Health and Care Scrutiny Committee acknowledged the progress being made in Children’s Services. He noted the introduction of the Flying Start scheme would help reduce the number of children going into care and which would hopefully lead to savings later in the year.
The Chair of the Economy, Residents, Community and Governance Scrutiny Committee talked about the impact of cuts to preventative and youth services and called for a review into the provision of youth services to be undertaken in line with the resolution previously passed by Council. He criticised the decision to reduce opening hours at Y Gaer and to end funding for public conveniences in Brecon and Ystradgynlais. In response to a question about an unidentified £110k cut to the Education budget, the Chief Executive advised that this was funding for Erw which was no longer required.
Having heard the debate the Portfolio Holder for Finance advised that he was moving an amendment to the proposed increase in Council Tax from 5% to 4.8%. This was seconded by County Councillor Van-Rees. The Chair accepted this as a minor amendment.
County Councillor James Gibson-Watt moved his amendment to recommendation 2 which had been submitted in accordance with the Constitution.
“This Council rejects a Council Tax rise of 5% as harmful and unaffordable to many. It notes the greatly improved 2020/21 grant settlement from Welsh Government, which was received after the initial decision to increase Council Tax by 5% was made, and that most Councils in Wales are proposing Council Tax increases of below 5%.
In addition Council is concerned about some of the proposed service cuts that will be detrimental to the Council’s ability to provide key services to our communities and will adversely impact on Vision 2025 objectives
Council therefore requests the Cabinet and Section 151 Officer to amend the proposed budget for decision at the next County Council meeting, prioritising in particular the restoration of funding to Library services, Cultural & Arts facilities and the Regulatory and Countryside Services the council delivers; and makes adjustments to enable the Council Tax increase to be reduced to 3.75%, and make such other proposals that are appropriate to achieve a balanced budget for 2020/21.”
In moving the amendment Councillor Gibson-Watt noted that the proposed level of Council Tax was above inflation and if accepted would mean above average increases for the next 5 years. He also referred to projected savings in the Libraries service which he said would put the future of the service at risk. County Councillor Davis Selby seconded the motion and expressed concern at proposed cuts to the Planning service. He argued that as the Cabinet had found an additional £152k just before the meeting it should be able find an additional £1.5m and come back to Council the next week with revised proposals.
The amendment was put to the vote and lost by 29 votes to 33.
The amendment to change the increase in Council Tax from 5% to 4.8% was put to the vote.
By 45 votes to 15 with 1 abstention it was
RESOLVEDthat the Revenue Budget for 2020-2021 with the inclusion of a 4.8% increase in Council Tax shown in the Financial Resource Model in Appendix B is approved.
This became the substantive motion for recommendation 2 and Council then voted on recommendations 1 to 8 in the addendum proposed by County Councillor Aled Davies and seconded by County Councillor Rosemarie Harris.
Recommendation 1: by 36 votes to 27 with 1 abstention it was
RESOLVED |
Reason for Decision |
1. That the MTFS for 2020-2025 as set out in Appendix A to the report be agreed in principle. |
To aid business planning and development of the budget over a three-year period |
Recommendation 2: Recorded Vote
Myfanwy Alexander
|
For |
Mark Barnes
|
For |
Jake Berriman
|
Against |
Graham Breeze
|
For |
Jackie Charlton
|
Against |
Linda Corfield
|
For |
Kelvyn Curry
|
Against |
Aled Davies
|
For |
Bryn Davies
|
Against |
Dai Davies
|
For |
Phyl Davies
|
Absent |
Sandra Davies
|
Absent |
Matthew Dorrance
|
Against |
Emily Durrant
|
Against |
David Evans
|
For |
James Evans
|
For |
Liam Fitzpatrick
|
Against |
Les George
|
For |
James Gibson-Watt
|
Against |
Rosemarie Harris
|
For |
Stephen Hayes
|
For |
Heulwen Hulme
|
For |
Amanda Jenner
|
For |
Arwel Jones
|
For |
David Jones
|
For |
Emyr Jones
|
For |
E Michael Jones
|
For |
Gareth Jones
|
For |
Joy Jones
|
Absent |
Michael J Jones
|
For |
Diane Jones-Poston
|
For |
Francesca Jump
|
Against |
Karen Laurie-Parry
|
Against |
Hywel Lewis
|
For |
Karl Lewis
|
For |
Peter Lewis
|
Absent |
Maureen Mackenzie
|
Against |
Iain McIntosh
|
Abstain |
Sue McNicholas
|
Against |
David Meredith
|
Against |
Claire Mills
|
Absent |
Gareth Morgan
|
Against |
John Morris
|
Against |
Rachel Powell
|
For |
William Powell
|
Against |
David Price
|
Absent |
Phil Pritchard
|
For |
Gareth Pugh
|
For |
Jeremy Pugh
|
Against |
Gareth Ratcliffe
|
Against |
Liz Rijnenberg
|
Against |
Lucy Roberts
|
For |
Pete Roberts
|
Against |
Kath Roberts-Jones
|
For |
Dan Rowlands
|
For |
David Selby
|
Against |
Kathryn Silk
|
Against |
Les Skilton
|
Absent |
David Thomas
|
Against |
Gwynfor Thomas
|
For |
Tim Van-Rees
|
For |
Elwyn Vaughan
|
Against |
Martin Weale
|
Against |
Jonathan Wilkinson
|
For |
Ange Williams
|
Against |
Gwilym Williams
|
For |
Huw Williams
|
Against |
Jon Williams
|
Against |
Michael Williams
|
For |
Roger Williams
|
Absent |
Sarah Williams
|
Against |
Beverley Baynham |
For
|
Recommendation 2: by 34 votes to 29 with 1 abstention it was
RESOLVED |
Reason for Decision |
2. That the Revenue Budget for 2020-2021 with the inclusion of a 4.8% increase in Council Tax shown in the Financial Resource Model in Appendix B is approved. |
Statutory Requirement |
Recommendation 3: by 33 votes to 25 with 2 abstentions it was
RESOLVED |
Reason for Decision |
3. That the Fees and Charges proposed within the Fees and Charges Register are approved (Appendices D and E) |
To comply with Powys County Council Income Policy |
Recommendation 4: by 47 votes to 9 with 3 abstentions it was
RESOLVED |
Reason for Decision |
4. The proposed Capital Strategy and Capital Programme for 2020-30 shown in Appendix F is approved. |
Statutory Requirement |
Recommendation 5: by 43 votes to 16 with 1 abstention it was
RESOLVED |
Reason for Decision |
5. The Minimum Revenue Provision Statement as set out on Appendix F is approved. |
Statutory Requirement |
Recommendation 6: by 42 votes to 13 it was
RESOLVED |
Reason for Decision |
6. The Treasury Management Strategy and the Annual Investment Strategy in Appendix F is approved. |
Statutory Requirement |
Recommendation 7: by 47 votes to 10 with 1 abstention it was
RESOLVED |
Reason for Decision |
7. The Authorised borrowing limit for 2020-21 as required under section 3(1) of the Local Government Act 2003 be approved at £434 million as set out in section 3.60 of this report. |
Statutory Requirement |
Recommendation 8: by 50 votes to 6 with 2 abstentions its was
RESOLVED |
Reason for Decision |
8. The Prudential Indicators for 2020-21 are approved as set out in section 3.56 to 3.58 of the report and Appendix F. |
Statutory Requirement |
Supporting documents: