Agenda item

Members considered the Budget Proposals for 2025/2026 and indicative budgets for 2026/2027 and 2027/2028.

 

Council agreed to relax the standing orders to allow the Leader of the Council to speak for longer than five minutes when introducing the Budget.

 

The Budget proposals had been discussed at several meetings prior, including Joint Budget Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet.

 

In moving the Budget proposals, the Leader of the Council ran through a presentation to accompany the Budget, which was appended to these minutes. The following points were highlighted:

 

• The maximum amount of Council Tax allowed to be claimed by the Council was being sought.
• Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) was money to set aside from investments the Council had made, which included St. Martin’s Park in Stamford and the Depot in Grantham. The Depot was on track to be opened in November 2025.
• A balanced Budget was proposed for 2025/2026 with plans for this to be repeated for 2026/2027, but there were pressures on the Budget beyond this time.
• There were proposed budget increases in some areas such as work on domestic violence, homelessness, welfare provision and others.
• A new post of Licensing Support Officer should enable existing licensing officers to be more mobile and spend more time out of the office as part of their job.
• Drainage rates – there had been several recent flooding events in the district, and the Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs) needed to take action. Drainage rates were set by the IDBs; there had been a higher increase in rates in Boston and South Holland District Council. £641,000 of recurring expenditure was due for South Kesteven.
• The night shelter within Grantham had helped people back into housing.
• Grantham town events and the Economic Development Support Officer would be funded from the Council’s contribution to the Future High Streets Fund.
• Capital proposals included the replacement of vehicles, wheelie bins, the Stamford Cattle Market Car Park extension and a programme to refurbish Grantham Wharf Road Car Park.
• There was an ongoing conversation about the replacement of leisure equipment at Grantham Meres Leisure Centre, and the scrutiny of this. There was a proposal within the Budget to make a loan to LeisureSK Ltd. for new equipment at the Meres Leisure Centre. Members of the Culture and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committee had asked to review any potential loan.
• Many people who took part in the public consultation on the Budget were in favour of increasing council tax by the highest amount.
• The implementation of the fixmystreet app allowed for residents to report issues to Lincolnshire County Council and South Kesteven District Council in one visit. If you had the app, you could report other issues in areas beyond Lincolnshire.
• A refuse collection review would take place to achieve efficiencies. This would likely result in some changes to bin collection days; any changes would need to be communicated to residents. Other areas of refuse collection, such as the in cab technology would be reviewed.
• The new Customer Service Centre had opened in Grantham.

 

The Budget proposals were seconded.

 

An amendment to the Budget proposals was moved and seconded which aimed to:

 

Remove all separate fees related to Muslim interments and incorporate into the standard fee structure.

 

It was believed that this differential was originally introduced in good faith to account for the fact that Muslim burials may take longer than some non-Muslim burials. This therefore increased the cost to the Council. Whilst it may be reasonable to charge more, most religious groups would not want to be singled out within the charging structure and the amendment sought to bring these costs in line with other burials and interments.

 

There had been 4 Muslim burials during the previous 5 years. The Section 151 Officer was content that the overall Budget would not be compromised as it was not a significant financial amendment, and therefore it could be considered.

 

This amendment was ACCEPTED by the mover of the original motion and became part of the substantive motion.

 

A further amendment was moved:

 

Appendix C General Fund Reserves

 

Propose that the sum of £100,000 is transferred from ‘Local Priorities Reserve’ and added to the ‘Flood Reserve Fund’.

 

The mover of the amendment highlighted the devastation caused by flooding. Lincolnshire County Council was the lead flood authority but other agencies, including South Kesteven District Council were involved. There was currently a small budget proposed to deal with flooding within the General Fund Reserves Statement.

 

The Section 151 Officer confirmed that the amendment to move money to a discretionary reserve was not significant enough to compromise the overall budget and could therefore be considered. There was already a £30,000 reserve for a flood response. Latest costings were that £21,000 would be used to fund the recent flood response. The Section 151 Officer’s recommendation to the Governance and Audit Committee would be to replace that reserve as part of outturn work at the financial year end.

 

The following points were highlighted on the amendment:

 

·       A similar amendment had been moved at Lincolnshire County Council on a larger scale, as they were the lead flood authority.

·       The flood reserve was being used for flood events and the costs incurred. The Council’s response was outside of the statutory response required and focused on the local community.

 

This amendment was ACCEPTED by the mover of the original motion and became part of the substantive motion.

 

Debate resumed on the substantive motion:

 

·       There were a number of risks mentioned within the report. Rurality and sparsity were no longer indices by which funding could be calculated. Councillors needed to get the message across to government that deprivation was not just an issue for urban areas.

·       Bin services across rural areas were costly to provide. If the Council was losing money and not taking rurality seriously then it would lead to further losses.

·       The recommendation on funding for gym equipment would be considered by the Culture and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committee prior to the pre-election period starting on 19 March.

·       The St. John’s area of Grantham was one of the lowest income areas in Lincolnshire and many residents were paying private rental charges. They were hugely dependent on the support of the Council.

·       New temporary housing was welcomed, but it was noted that this would be an ongoing issue requiring management.

·       It may be that the appropriate Overview and Scrutiny Committee would need to review the level of funding provided for any flood response if the reserve was to increase to £100,000.

 

A recorded vote on recommendations 1-11 of the motion was required as it related to the Council’s Budget; recommendations 12-18 did not require a recorded vote as they did not directly impact the Budget,

 

The results of the recorded vote were as follows:

 

For:              Councillors Emma Baker, Rhys Baker, Ashley Baxter, Harrish Bisnauthsing, Pam Byrd, Steven Cunnington, Phil Dilks, Barry Dobson, Patsy Ellis, Paul Fellows, Phil Gadd, Tim Harrison, Anna Kelly, Philip Knowles, Bridget Ley, Penny Milnes, Virginia Moran, Charmaine Morgan, Chris Noon, Habib Rahman, Rhea Rayside, Max Sawyer, Ian Selby, Rob Shorrock, Vanessa Smith, Lee Steptoe, Paul Stokes, Elvis Stooke, Rosemary Trollope-Bellew, Murray Turner, Jane Wood and Paul Wood (32)

 

Against:        None

 

Abstentions:  Councillors Matt Bailey, David Bellamy, Pam Bosworth, Helen Crawford, Richard Dixon-Warren, Graham Jeal, Gloria Johnson, Jane Kingman, Gareth Knight, Zoe Lane, Robert Leadenham, Nikki Manterfield, Ian Stokes, Sarah Trotter and Mark Whittington (15)

 

The remaining recommendations had been moved, seconded, and following the vote they were AGREED:

 

DECISION:

 

That Full Council:

 

1.    Set a General Fund budget requirement of £20.603m for 2025/26 inclusive of special expenses (detailed in section 2 and Appendix A of the report).

 

2.    Approve a Council tax base of 50,140.5 for the South Kesteven District.

 

3.    Set a Council Tax level of £189.37 for 2025/26 (Band D property) after taking into consideration the consultation feedback.

 

4.    Note indicative Budget estimates for 2026/27 and 2027/28 (detailed in Appendix A of the report).

 

5.    Agree to remove all separate fees related to Muslim interments and incorporate into the standard fee structure.

 

6.    Approve the General Fund Capital Programme and financing statement 2025/26 to 2027/28 (detailed in Section 6 and Appendix B of the report)

 

7.    Approve General Fund Capital Programme budget carry forward £11.433m from 2024/25 (detailed in Appendix B of the report).

 

8.    Approve the movements in General Fund Reserves, to include the transfer of £100,000 from the Local Priorities Reserve to the Flood Reserve Fund (detailed in Section 8 and Appendix C of the report)

 

9.    Approve the Treasury Management Strategy Statement (detailed in Section 10 and Appendix F of the report).

 

10.Approve the Capital Strategy (detailed in Section 10 and Appendix I of the report).

 

11.Note the calculations and set the Council Tax for the year 2025/26 made in accordance with requirement set out in the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (detailed in Appendix J of the report).

 

The remaining resolutions were subject to an ordinary electronic vote:

 

12.Approve HRA dwelling rent increases of 2.7% for 2025/26 providing an average rent of £100.77 per week.

 

13.Approve increases in HRA garage and shared ownership rents of 1.7%.

 

14.Approve the HRA Revenue Budget 2025/26 and note the indicative budgets for 2026/27 and 2027/28 (detailed in Appendix A of the report).

 

15.Approve the Housing Capital Programme and financing statement 2025/26 to 2027/28 (detailed in Section 6 and Appendix B of the report).

 

16.Approve the HRA Capital Programme budget carry forward of £2.842m from 2024/25 (Appendix B of the report).

 

17.Approve a delegation to the Chief Executive, S151 Officer and the Cabinet Members for Housing and Property to accept the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and to amend the Capital Programme Financing Statement as required.

 

18.Approve the movements in HRA Reserves (detailed in Section 8 and Appendix C of the report).