Issue - meetings

(a)       That the recommendations of Cabinet, as detailed above, for balancing the budget for 2022/23 be approved; and

(b)       That the level of Council Tax for 2022/23 as recommended by Cabinet be approved.

The Chief Executive introduced a report to receive the recommendations from Cabinet for the Council to set a legal and balanced Council Fund Revenue Budget for 2022/23.

The Chief Executive, Corporate Finance Manager, Strategic Finance Manager and Revenues Manager gave a presentation covering the following:

·         Setting a legal and balanced budget

·         The Journey so far…

·         Changes to the Additional Budget Requirement 2022/23

·         Budget Solutions 2022/23

·         Council Tax 2022/23

·         Schools and Social Care Budgets

·         Open risks

·         Reserves

·         Professional opinions and concluding remarks

·         Looking ahead and the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS)

The Council had received full reports on previous stages of the budget setting process for 2022/23 and previous reports and appendices had been provided as background information.  Cabinet had sent a revised minimum budget requirement for 2022/23 of £20.696m at its meeting on 14 December and received an update on the key headlines and financial impacts of the Welsh Local Government Provisional Settlement at its meeting on 18 January 2022. 

In previous years, the Council had set a clear direction that any annual increase should be 5% or less.  The Council had had to include a number of additional pressures to provide for the new responsibilities identified in the Welsh Local Government Provisional Settlement which had increased the budget requirement.  Based on the final additional budget requirement of £30.562m an overall annual increase of 3.3% is required on Council tax for Council Services and 0.65% for additional contributions to North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, Regional Coroners Service and Regional Education Consortium GwE.  This equated to an overall uplift of 3.95%.     

The recommendations for Council were moved by the Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Education, Councillor Ian Roberts, who thanked the Chief Executive and officers for their work throughout the budget setting process.  He also thanked the National Government and Welsh Government (WG) for the settlement provided but said that there was a need to recognise that the Council had been particularly dependent on the COVID Reserve with a number of claims having been made to WG.  He assured Members that the budget proposals had been robustly challenged by all Cabinet Members, with particular emphasis around Earmarked Reserves, and reported that Members continued to make representations on the need to review the funding formula for Local Government through the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA).  He said he was fully aware of the proposed rise in Council Tax at a time when energy costs and National Insurance contributions were rising, and applauded WG’s ambition to move towards a real living wage, but outlined the challenges that would face the future Council administration if the Council Tax level was to be reduced or the use of reserves was proposed.  He therefore moved the following recommendations: -

(a)       That Council approves the revised additional budget requirement for 2022/23;

(b)       That Council approves the final proposals for the corporate efficiencies which would contribute to the budget;

(c)       That Council sets a legal and balanced budget based on the calculations as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 90