Horsham District Council : Issue - items at meetings - Budget and Medium Term Financial Strategy update

To consider the report of the Cabinet Member for Finance & Assets

RESOLVED

i) That the changes in the Council’s financial position in 2021/22 and the medium-term be noted.

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL

ii) That the charges from 1 April 2022 for the garden waste subscription service are increased from £42 for the first bin to £44 and for any subsequent bin increased from £33 to £35.

iii) To approve the creation of a £2,500 revenue budget for a short breaks funding grant from West Sussex County Council and matching expenditure in the 2021/22 leisure services budgets.

iv) To approve the creation of a £99,271 revenue budget for Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) grant funding from West Sussex County Council and matching expenditure in the 2021/22 environmental health service budgets.

v) To approve the creation of a £139,000 revenue budget for Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) grant funding from West Sussex County Council and matching expenditure in the 2021/22 housing services budgets.

vi) To approve the creation of a £78,946 revenue budget for Winter 2021 COVID-19 rent arrears financial support grant funding from Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities and matching expenditure in the 2021/22 housing services budgets.

vii) Subject to the safety net being put in place, recommend to Council that it approves the Council joining the West Sussex Business Rates pool in 2022/23.

REASON

ii) The Council needs to acknowledge the effects of the local situation occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and the continued impact this is having on its financial position both in the short and medium-term. This has moved the council from what has been a long-term healthy financial position to one with predicted deficits. However, given the level of uncertainty in the projections, the economy and proposed Government action the report does not recommend direct action to reduce expenditure at this stage.

ii) The costs of running the garden waste service increase by inflation, and this price increase is passing this cost onto users of the service.

iii) The short breaks grant will be spent on a Family Fun Day at Chanctonbury Leisure Centre for disabled children and young people before the end of March 2022. This will form an additional part of the Reaching Higher project.

iv) The COMF grant will be spent preventing health inequalities and on COVID-19 risk management.

v) The housing COMF grant will be spent on a range of interventions and housing solutions to support those affected by homelessness and risk of homelessness associated with COVID-19

vi) The Winter 2021 COVID-19 rent arrears financial support grant will support low-income private renters with COVID-19 related arrears to avoid eviction or find a new home.

vii) Joining the West Sussex business Rates pool should benefit the County and therefore the district by retaining locally generated business rates, using it to further support the economic regeneration of the wider West Sussex area.

Councillor Richard Landeryou, Cabinet Member for Finance & Assets, introduced the report on the Council’s financial position and MTFS, and outlined how assumptions had changed since the update in September.

Councillor Landeryou anticipated a modest surplus in the 2022/23 budget, but there was little information from Government to help with later projections and future strategy. Once further details were available on garden waste and food waste collections, business rates and income recovery positions, revisions to the MTFS could be made. There was also uncertainty over the full cost of measures to tackle climate change, which had not yet been included in the financial planning.

Councillor Landeryou advised that the garden waste collection charges had to be agreed before the budget was set in February because of the timing of annual billing. The recommendations to Council included four new revenue budgets to enable the Council to accept grant funding on specific services. With regard to the final recommendation, it was noted that the Council had withdrawn from the West Sussex Business Rates pool last year because of uncertainty over the impact on Covid-19 on business rates.

The Director of Community Services confirmed that the extent to which the Government would fund the collection of food waste was still unknown. There was also no clarity as to whether the Government was going to remove the ability to charge for garden waste collections. With regards to the possible Government stipulation against comingling of recycled items, the Director anticipated that Horsham District’s good record on the quality and quantity of recycling would allow us to continue with comingled collections.