Agenda item

It was MOVED, SECONDED and RESOLVED that having considered the views of those consulted on the budget, and subject to consideration of the outcome of consultation with business ratepayers and subject to proper process, as required, the Mayor and Cabinet:

General Fund Revenue Budget

 

1. noted and asked Council to note the projected overall variance after the use of corporate provisions and reserves of £9.6m (or 3.9%) against the agreed 2022/23 revenue budget of £248.610m as set out in section 6 of the report and that any year-end overspend would be met from corporate provisions and reserves;

 

2. endorsed and asked Council to endorse the budget cut reduction measures of £12.587m as per the Mayor and Cabinet meeting of the 7 December 2022, as set out in section 6 of the report and summarised in Appendix Y1 and Y2;

 

3. agreed and asked Council to agree the allocation of £43.848m of resources from the corporate risks and pressures, social care precept, new homes bonus, social care grant, ASC market sustainability and improvement fund and services grant in 2023/24 to be invested in funding quantified budget pressures and opportunities, both recurring and once-off as set out in section 6;

 

4. agreed to recommend to Council that a General Fund Budget Requirement of £263.679m for 2023/24 be approved;

 

5. asked Council to agree to a 4.99% increase in Lewisham’s Council Tax element. This would result in a Band D equivalent Council Tax level of £1,492.13 for Lewisham’s services and £1,926.27 overall. This represents an overall increase in Council Tax for 2022/23 of 6.02% and is subject to the GLA precept for 2023/24 being increased by £38.55 (i.e. 9.74%) from £395.59 to £434.14, in line with the GLA’s draft budget proposals;

 

6. noted the final settlement figure for 2023/24 had not yet been announced and delegated authority to the Executive Director for Corporate Resources to include any change to the provisional settlement of £131,105,977 in the report for Council with any difference covered from provisions and reserves as necessary;

 

7. noted the provisional and estimated precept and levies from the GLA and other bodies as detailed in Appendix Y6 and delegated authority to the Executive Director for Corporate Resources to include any changes to these in the report for Council with any difference covered from provisions and reserves as necessary;

 

8. noted and asked Council to note the Council Tax Ready Reckoner which for illustrative purposes sets out the Band D equivalent Council Tax at various levels of increase. This was explained in section 6 of the report and was set out in more detail in Appendix Y4;

 

9. asked that the Executive Director for Corporate Resources issues cash limits to all Directorates once the 2023/24 Revenue Budget was agreed;

 

10. considered, and asked Council to consider, the Section 25 Statement from the Chief Finance Officer. This was attached at Appendix Y5;

 

11. agreed and asked Council to agree the draft statutory calculations for 2023/24 as set out at Appendix Y6;

 

12. noted and asked Council to note the prospects for the revenue budget for 2023/24 and future years as set out in section 6;

 

13. agreed and asked officers to continue to develop firm proposals to redesign and transform services and inform the capital strategy by bringing them forward in good time to support the work towards a savings and investment round to help plan early to meet the future forecast medium term finance strategy objectives;

 

Other Grants (within the General Fund)

 

14 noted and asked Council to note the adjustments to and impact of various specific grants for 2023/24 on the General Fund as set out in section 7 of the report;

 

15.  accepted the funding allocation from the GLA and CLF for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) of £1.92m (a combination of £0.977m capital and £0.943m revenue), subject to review of the grant funding agreements;

 

 Fees and charges

 

16. approved the approach to setting 2023/24 fees and charges for chargeable services in section 6.100 of the report and attached at Appendix Y8;

 

Dedicated Schools Grant and Pupil Premium

 

Schools Block

 

17. noted and recommended that Council notes the provisional gross Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocation of £337.776m before the Department’s adjustments to fund Academy schools and inclusion of the £7.6m mainstream additional grant;

 

18. noted and recommended that Council notes the provisional DSG allocation for £231.029m (this includes £6.18m streamlining of the supplementary grant from 2022/23) be the Schools’ Budget (Schools Block) for 2023/24 covering both maintained schools and academies;

 

19. noted an increase in pupil unit funding for primary of £205.26 and secondary of £370.59 and this also incorporates the supplementary grant as mentioned in 1.1 above. However, there has been an overall reduction in primary age pupil by 451, partially off set by an increase in secondary school numbers of 224;

 

20. noted that following the Schools Forum meeting on the 19 January 2023, submission has been made to the Department for Education with regards to school funding formula, recommending the application of the National Funding Formula (including unit values) allowing for a maximum 0.5% uplift in Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG);

 

21. agreed and recommended that Council agrees, (as recommended by Schools Forum) the once-off transfer of circa £0.4m (0.18%) of Dedicated Schools Grant to the High Needs Block;

 

Central Schools Services Block (CSSB)

 

22. noted, and asked Council to note, the construct and allocation of £3.309m for the CSSB block allocation for 2023/24, a reduction of circa £0.4m from the £3.693m 2022/23 allocation;

 

 High Needs Block (HNB)

 

23. noted, and asked Council to note, the provisional HNB £77.154m to support the Council’s statutory duty with regards Special Education Needs (SEN). This includes £3.2m additional funding from the autumn statement. This is a net increase of £7.030m relative to 2022/23. The HNB will be finalised in March for deductions arising for institutions funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA);

 

24. noted that the Schools Forum on 19 January 2023 agreed the transfer of circa £0.4m (0.18%) to the block to support the Council to meet its statutory functions;

 

25. noted that the HNB is expected to overspend by between £4m to £6m in 2022/23, increasing the cumulative overspend to circa £16m in total for 2022/23 as £11m has been brought forward from 2021/22. The overspend is currently ringfenced within the DSG, Lewisham is part of the delivering better value (DBV) tranche 3 initiative with the DfE ;

 

Early Years Block (EYB)

 

26. noted, and asked Council to note, the Dedicated Schools Grant allocation to the EYB of £26.283m; and that the Department for Education has increased hourly funding for “3 and 4 year old” from £6.04 to £6.33 (this includes 11p for Teacher’s Pay and Pension Grant which is now streamlined into the hourly rate). This is therefore an increase of circa 4.8% from 2022/23. With respect to 2 year funding, the hourly rate has increased from £6.87 to £7.52, an 9% increase (i.e. 65p per hour) for 2023/24;

 

27. noted that the maintained nursery supplementary funding allocation for 2023/24 is subject to change but is expected to increase by circa £60k, subject to movement in pupil numbers;

 

Pupil Premium

 

28. noted, and asked Council to note, that the pupil premium will continue in the 2023/24 financial year. At the time of writing, the overall allocation, which is linked to Free School Meals Ever 6 data (i.e. covers 6 census worth of data), has not been confirmed, the per-pupil funding is expected to increase by 5%. We would expect to receive the final allocation until summer 2023;

 

Housing Revenue Account

 

29..noted, and asked Council to note, the consultation report on proposed service charge increases to tenants’ and leaseholders in the Brockley area, presented to tenants and leaseholders on 5th December 2022, as attached at Appendix X3;

 

30. noted, and asked Council to note, the consultation report on proposed service charge increases to tenants’ and leaseholders and the Lewisham Homes budget strategy presented to tenants and leaseholders on 12th December 2022 as attached at Appendix X4;

 

31. agreed, and asked Council, to set an increase in dwelling rents of 7.0% (an average of £7.22 per week) – as per the Governments direction for capping increases to be applied to rents for 2023/24 outlined in section 9 of this report;

 

32. agreed, and asked Council to agree, to set an increase in the hostels accommodation charge by 7.0% (or £2.63 per week), in accordance with Governments direction for capping increases to be applied to rents for 2023/24;

 

33 approved, and asked Council to approve, the following average weekly increases/decreases for dwellings for:

 

33.1 service charges to non-Lewisham Homes managed dwellings (Brockley) to ensure full cost recovery and 13.6% inflationary uplift for 2023/24;

 

 • caretaking 13.6% (£0.46)

 • grounds 13.6% (£0.26)

• communal lighting 13.6% (£0.02)

• bulk waste collection 13.6% (£0.18)

 • window cleaning 13.6% (£0.00)

• tenants’ levy 0.00% (£0.00)

 

33.2 service charges to Lewisham Homes managed dwellings:

 

• caretaking 10.00% (£0.68)

• grounds 0.00% (£0.00)

 • window cleaning -27.00% -(£0.03)

 • communal lighting 7.00% (£0.19)

• block pest control -17.00% -(£0.35)

 • waste collection 7.00% (£0.14)

• heating & hot water 5.00% (£0.54)

• tenants’ levy 0.00% (£0.00)

 • bulk waste disposal 7.00% (£0.07)

 • sheltered housing 0.00% (£0.00)

 

33.3 approved, and asked Council to approve, the following average weekly percentage changes for hostels and shared temporary units for;

 

 • service charges (hostels) – caretaking etc.; 6.31% or £4.60pw

 • energy cost increases for heat, light & power; 20.0% or £1.19pw, the balance of x% will be funded by the Council

 • water charges increase; 5.0% or £0.01pw

 

33.4 approved, and asked Council to approve, an increase in garage rents by 10.0% (£1.66 per week) for Brockley and Lewisham Homes residents as outlined in Appendix X5;

 

33.5 noted, and asked Council to note, that the budgeted expenditure for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for 2023/24 is £257.1m, split £103.6m revenue and £153.5m capital, which includes the decent homes and new build programmes;

 

33.6 agreed the HRA budget strategy cut proposals in order to achieve a balanced budget in 2023/24, as attached at Appendix X1;

 

33.7 noted the 2022/23 Quarter 2 HRA Capital Programme monitoring position and the Capital Programme potential future schemes and resources as set out in section 9 of the report;

 

Treasury Management Strategy

 

34 approved and recommended that Council approves the Treasury Management Strategy 2023/24 including the prudential indicators and treasury indicators, as set out in section 10 of the report;

 

35 approved and recommended that Council approves the Annual Investment Strategy and Creditworthiness Policy, set out in further detail at Appendix Z2;

 

36 approved and recommended that Council approves the Investment Strategy as set out in section 10 of this report, along with the operational boundary of £607.6m and the authorised limit of £668.4m for the year as set out in section 10 of this report;

 

37 approved and recommended that Council approves the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) policy as set out in section 10 of this report;

 

38. agreed and recommended that Council agrees to delegate to the Executive Director of Corporate Resources authority during 2023/24 to make amendments to borrowing and investment limits as set out in section 10 of the report provided they are consistent with the strategy and there is no change to the Council’s authorised limit for borrowing;

 

39. approved and recommended that Council approves the overall credit and counterparty risk management criteria, as set out at Appendix Z2, the proposed countries for investment at Appendix Z3, and that it formally delegates responsibility for managing transactions with those institutions which meet the criteria to the Executive Director for Corporate Resources;

 

Capital Programme

 

40. noted the capital programme position and recommends that Council approves the 2023/24 to 2026/27 Capital Programme of £480.6m as set out in section 11 of this report and Appendix W1;

41.. agreed and recommended that Council agree to delegate to the Executive Director for Corporate Resources authority to amend the scheme mix within the Capital programme to respond to the risks as set out and to identify the match funding necessary for the recently awarded Levelling-up bid of £19m as long as this is done within the total programme parameters set out and asks that an updated capital programme is brought back to Mayor & Cabinet in 2023/24 at the earliest opportunity.

 

42. agreed that officers prepare governance and a prioritisation process, based on the adaptation of existing arrangements, with a recommendation to:

 

 • Explore an annual Strategic CIL budget for infrastructure project allocation

• Develop an annual process for the allocation of Strategic CIL as part of the budget setting process

 • Vary the existing governance process for s106 monies agreed by Mayor and Cabinet to accommodate CIL and make any necessary updates to reflect the current Constitution

 • Develop a prioritisation process for Strategic CIL projects, to be reviewed after its first year of implementation