Agenda and minutes

The Joint Executive Advisory Board

RESOLVED

that Councillor Nils Christiansen be elected as Chairman for the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Jennifer Jordan, Sheila Kirkland, Julia McShane and Tony Phillips.  In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 23(i), Councillor Caroline Reeves was present as a substitute for Councillor Julia McShane.

In accordance with the local Code of Conduct, a councillor is required to disclose at the meeting any Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (DPI) that they may have in respect of any matter for consideration on this agenda. Any councillor with a DPI must not participate in any discussion or vote regarding that matter and they must withdraw from the meeting immediately before consideration of the matter.

If that DPI has not been registered, the councillor must notify the Monitoring Officer of the details of the DPI within 28 days of the date of the meeting.

Councillors are further invited to disclose any non-pecuniary interest which may be relevant to any matter on this agenda, in the interests of transparency, and to confirm that it will not affect their objectivity in relation to that matter.

There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests or non-pecuniary interests.

To confirm the minutes of the Joint Executive Advisory Board meeting held on 23 April 2018.

The minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 23 April 2018 were confirmed as a correct record, and signed by the Chairman.

The Joint Executive Advisory Board (EAB) was invited to consider a report outlining the current position with the 2019-20 outline budget and submit its comments thereon to the Executive to assist it with the preparation of the General Fund estimates for 2019-20.  The outline budget had been considered by the Joint EAB Budget Task Group at its meeting on 8 November 2018 when it had examined capital bids for consideration by the EAB at its next meeting, in January 2019.  There were no revenue bids for the EAB to consider at this meeting.

The report explained that the budget included government grant at a level based on the 4-year local government finance settlement issued by the Government in February 2016.  However, the amount of grant would not be confirmed until the Government released the draft local government finance settlement which the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government had provisionally indicated would take place on 6 December 2018.  As it was early in the budget process, the report also set out the areas of uncertainty that may influence the final position.

The budget assumed a £5 (3.0%) increase in Council Tax in line with the Budget Assumptions 2019-20 to 2022-23 report approved by the Executive on 17 July 2018.  The draft Council Tax base was 56,795, which was 0.53% lower than 2018-19.  This had reduced the resources available by approximately £52,200.  The outcome of the Surrey Business Rates Pilot bid for 2019-20 was awaited.

The financial monitoring report for the first six months of 2018-19 would be reported to the Corporate Governance and Standards Committee on 29 November 2018.  The projected net expenditure on the General Fund for the current financial year was estimated to be £1.2 million less than the original estimate.  The current outline budgetary position showed no shortfall between the likely resources and the proposed net expenditure.

The major reasons for movements between 2018-19 and 2019-20 and the variances at service level were set out in the report and appendices.  Although no revenue growth bids had been received for 2019-20, some capital bids may have revenue implications attached to them.  These would be considered by the Executive as part of the Capital and Investment Strategy report in January 2019, along with a schedule of proposed fees and charges for 2019-20.

The Director of Finance gave a presentation which provided a progress statement in respect of the 2019/20 budget.  The presentation explained the service and financial planning process, the factors affecting the General Fund revenue budget, the Capital and Investment Strategy, the capital scheme process and the capital programme.  The Director advised that a balanced budget for 2019/20 had been achieved following the reduction of the deficit of approximately £700,000 to zero.  However, a longer term gap of £8.5 million was anticipated by 2022/23.

The following points arose from questions and discussion:

·             The Deputy Leader, the Lead Councillor for Finance and Asset Management, and the Financial Services Manager had recently met the Under Secretary of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.