?

consider the updated report of the Chief Executive on delivering the co-operative vision within a three year sustainable balanced  budget update and the proposed Council Tax levels 2014/15; 

?

adopt the Co-operative Council Finance Plan 2014-17 (Appendix 1 refers);

?

approve the proposed net revenue budget requirement for 2014/15;

?

approve the capital budget 2013/17;

?

approve delegation arrangements for approval of capital funding and schemes;

?

approve the Treasury Management Strategy and Annual  Investment Strategy 2014/15;

?

approve the Council Tax for 2014/15.

Appendix 2

Minute 106

Delivering the co-operative vision within a three year sustainable balanced budget.   

Appendix 3

For information: Cabinet’s response to the scrutiny recommendations and the scrutiny report.

Appendix 4

Minute 107

Treasury Management Strategy and Annual Investment Strategy 2014/15.

(a)

the draft Co-operative Council Finance Plan 2014 – 2017;

(b)

Cabinet minute 106 (of 11 February 2014) and the Cabinet report on delivering the co-operative vision within a three year sustainable balanced budget;

(c)

Cabinet minute 102 (of 11 February 2014) on the Scrutiny Report following scrutiny of the delivery the co-operative vision within a three year sustainable balanced budget including Cabinet’s response to the recommendations and the Scrutiny Report;

(d)

Cabinet minute 107 (of 11 February 2014) on the Treasury Management Strategy and Annual Investment Strategy.

(e)

expressed concern that the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority were meeting to agree their precept on the same day as the City Council to set the Council Tax and asked the Chief Executive to write to the authority to try and prevent similar circumstances in future years; 

(f)

asked that recorded votes were taken on any amendments to and the final decision on the budget and Council Tax rates;      

(g)

moved the recommendations in the written report of the Chief Executive to the City Council, including the 2014/15 Council Tax rates.

(h)

the scale of the cuts made by the Coalition Government which had resulted in a real terms funding reduction of nine point five per cent (9.5%) amounting to £12m;

(i)

the Council’s reduction in costs of over £30m in the last three years and the need to reduce costs by a further £33m over the next three years;

(j)

the projected shortfall of £64.5m over three years;

(k)

the proposal to set an indicative three year budget for the first time, from 2014/15 to 2017;

(l)

the three year transformation programme to provide a fundamental rethink about how services were provided, joining services up with partners and running services in new ways;

(m)

the initiatives to deliver growth including -

?

investing in jobs with the Plan for Jobs; 

?

supporting new homes with the Plan for Homes, the Get Plymouth Building programme and the affordable housing loan facility;

?

the Plymouth and South West Peninsula City Deal;

?

the Council’s commitment to roads with £2m extra each year for ongoing road resurfacing;

(n)

the Council’s priority to be a caring city, to promote a fairer, more equal city by investing in communities, putting citizens at the heart of decision making, promoting independence and reducing health and social inequality;   

(o)

the adult social services gross budget of £90m with £77m dedicated to care packages;

(p)

the budget of £26m for children’s social care services next year with the majority being spent on placements in foster care and residential and secure placements.  He also thanked all the Council’s foster carers for the incredible work that they did on a daily basis;  

(q)

the 80 per cent of the city’s schools rated good or outstanding by Ofsted. The Council would be spending £18m on services to schools and £5m on youth services, in addition to the dedicated schools’ grant that would go direct to schools;

(r)

his determination to tackle public health and underfunding issues to improve the health of Plymouth’s residents;

(s)

the Council’s need to be pioneering with the transformation of the way the Council provided services to customers and making it easier for them to contact the Council, with a single point of contact;

(t)

his aim to reduce the current spend of £9.3m on environmental services however remaining committed to weekly bin collections;

(u)

further rationalisation of corporate services in order to protect front line services;

(v)

the work undertaken to create a confident city, with a cultural offer, including -

?

the launch of the Britain’s Ocean City branding;

?

plans for a Plymouth History Centre;

?

plans for the Mayflower 2020 anniversary;

(w)

the proposed capital programme of £208m to March 2017;

(x)

major investments -

?

to attract new businesses to Plymouth such as £2.5m in employment units at Langage;

?

for improvements to the transport infrastructure and road network such as the £1.5m Marjon link road;

?

in two new schools, including £5m for a new Knowle Primary School;

(y)

the completion of 87 manifesto commitments;

(z)

the work of the Finance officers and the Cabinet, in particular Councillor Lowry, and he thanked them all for their hard work; 

(aa)

the proposed revenue budget of £205m, four year capital budget of £208m with a gross budget of £553m;

(bb)

the proposed Council Tax increase of one point nine nine per cent (1.99%).

‘To add a new recommendation (8) as follows and renumber the subsequent recommendations accordingly - 

 (8) 

to agree a £5 million contribution from the capital budget of £207,670m, towards the first phase development of a marine industries production campus at South Yard, Devonport Naval Base as part of the £65 million project to create 1,600 marine industry jobs and new homes following the recently approved City Deal;

To amend current recommendation (8) (proposed recommendation (9)) to read as follows (new wording is underlined) -

 (9) 

to give delegated authority to the Leader, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and relevant portfolio holder, to commit to the following capital proposals (or any substitute proposals), including key decisions, within the overall affordability envelope, based on sound business cases -

(a)

the City Council owns significant land holdings across the city in industrial areas.  We will commit an investment of £2.5 million to one of those employment sites (subject to a robust business case) to deliver circa 20,000 square feet of new employment accommodation targeted at business start-ups and SME’s creating new jobs and business opportunities in the city;

(b)

to make financial provision to support the regeneration of the city centre. A fund will be set aside to support mixed use development opportunities within the city centre.  This will recognise and provide the opportunity to address challenges that areas such as the West End face; reshaping the city centre to meet modern day living and life styles.  Opportunities to bring forward a range of uses that support a more mixed and broader offer such as residential, business and leisure uses will be supported. We will do this working in partnership with the private sector to bring forward stalled schemes / development sites, creating jobs and promoting alternative uses.’

 (cc)

the lack of certainty on the savings to accrue from the transformation programme, the absence of a business case and risk register;

(dd)

the lack of information provided to scrutiny on transformation;

(ee)

the continuing use of the Council’s reserves;

(ff)

the refusal of government money to freeze the Council Tax;

(gg)

the evidence from scrutiny that working relations with partners were not what the Council had hoped;   

(hh)

the lack of detail, the lack of credibility with the transformation programme, the uncertainty on the level of the redundancy reserve required and the use of reserves to balance the budget which made it, in his opinion, an unsafe budget.

(ii)

further information had not been provided to members of the Co-operative Scrutiny Board as requested during the budget scrutiny;  

(jj)

support packages had not been identified for staff;

(kk)

no funding had been identified to meet costs of agency backfilling; 

(ll)

the lack of openness and transparency;

(mm)

that the transformation costs represented less than half a per cent of the budget and that a cautious approach had been taken with regard to figures as the outcome was reliant on partners;

(nn)

a revised risk register was included in the papers presented;

(oo)

that Councillors Bowyer and James were members of the Transformation Advisory Group and had had access to summaries of the outline business cases and would receive the business plans in due course;

(pp)

that the papers provided lacked the detail presented by Devon County Council to their councillors;

(qq)

that monthly monitoring reports were provided now in place of the previous quarterly reports.

(1)

to adopt the “Co-operative Council Finance Plan 2014 to 2017 and its implications on the revenue and capital budget.

(2)

to agree that an additional allocation of £0.500m is added to the staff pay contingency for 2014/15;

(3)

to agree that the revenue contingency of £1.300m in the 2013/14 base budget is reduced to £1.000m for 2014/15;

(4)

to agree that additional resources as determined through the December 2013 settlement are deployed to the 2014/15 revenue budget as required (and detailed in the written report);

(5)

to approve an increase of one point nine nine per cent (1.99%) in Council Tax for 2014/15;

(6)

to approve the proposed net revenue budgetrequirement for 2014/15 of £204.680m;

(7)

to approve the total capital budget of £207.670m for 2013 to 2017. Any changes to the overall capital funding available to be sanctioned by the Council’s Section 151 Officer;

(8)

to agree a £5 million contribution from the capital budget of £207,670m, towards the first phase development of a marine industries production campus at South Yard, Devonport Naval Base as part of the £65 million project to create 1,600 marine industry jobs and new homes following the recently approved City Deal;

(9)

to give delegated authority to the Leader, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and relevant portfolio holder, to commit to the following capital proposals (or any substitute proposals), including key decisions, within the overall affordability envelope, based on sound business cases -

(a)

the City Council owns significant land holdings across the city in industrial areas and will commit an investment of £2.5 million to one of those employment sites (subject to a robust business case) to deliver circa 20,000 square feet of new employment accommodation targeted at business start-ups and SME’s creating new jobs and business opportunities in the city;

(b)

to make financial provision to support the regeneration of the city centre. A fund will be set aside to support mixed use development opportunities within the city centre.  This will recognise and provide the opportunity to address challenges that areas such as the West End face; reshaping the city centre to meet modern day living and life styles.  Opportunities to bring forward a range of uses that support a more mixed and broader offer such as residential, business and leisure uses will be supported. We will do this working in partnership with the private sector to bring forward stalled schemes / development sites, creating jobs and promoting alternative uses;

(10)

to agree that all newly approved capital schemes are incorporated within regular public finance reporting;

(11)

using the Council tax base for 2014/15 as 67066.0  [Item T in the formula in Section 31B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as amended (the “Act”)]; to agree that the Council tax requirement for the Council’s own purposes for 2014/15 is £86,837,999;

(12)

to agree that the following  amounts are calculated for the year 2014/15 in accordance with Sections 31 to 36 of the Act:

(a)

£554,486,577 being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for  the items set out in Section 31A(2) of the Act (Gross Expenditure and Transfers to Reserves);

(b)

£467,648,578 being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for  the items set out in Section 31A(3) of the Act (Gross Income and Transfers from  Reserves);

(c)

£86,837,999 being the amount by which the aggregate at 12(a) above exceeds the aggregate at 12(b) above, calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 31A(4) of the Act as its Council tax requirement for the year. (Item R in the formula in section 31B of the Act);

(d)

£1,294.81 being the amount at 12(c) above (Item R), all divided by Item T (11 above), calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 31B of the Act, as the basic amount of its Council tax for the year;

(13)

to note that the office of the Devon and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Police Commissioner has issued precepts to the Council in accordance with Section 40 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 for each category of dwellings in the Council’s area. These are included in the tables below, reflecting a one point nine nine per cent (1.99%) increase;

(14)

to note that the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority has issued precepts to the Council in accordance with Section 40 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 for each category of dwellings in the Council’s area. These are included in the tables below, showing a proposed one point nine nine per cent (1.99%) increase.  

(15)

in accordance with Sections 30 and 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, to set the indicative aggregate amounts shown in the tables below as the amounts of Council Tax for 2014/15 for each part of its area and for each of the categories of dwellings -

Plymouth City Council after one point nine nine per cent (1.99%) increase

A

B

C

D

£863.21

£1,007.07

£1,150.94

£1,294.81

E

F

G

H

£1,582.55

£1,870.28

£2,158.02

£2,589.62

Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner after one point nine nine per cent (1.99%) increase

A

B

C

D

£110.77

£129.24

£147.70

£166.16

E

F

G

H

£203.08

£240.01

£276.93

£332.32

Devon and Somerset Fire Authority after one point nine nine per cent (1.99%) increase

A

B

C

D

£51.26

£59.81

£68.34

£76.89

E

F

G

H

£93.97

£111.07

£128.15

£153.78

Aggregate of Council Tax Requirements 2014/15

A

B

C

D

£1,025.24

£1,196.12

£1,366.98

£1,537.86

E

F

G

H

£1,879.60

£2,221.36

£2,563.10

£3,075.72

(16)

that in accordance with the principles approved under 52ZB of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, the Council’s relevant basic amount of council tax for 2014/15 is not more than two per cent (2%) higher than the relevant basic amount of council tax for 2013/14 and that it is therefore determined that the Council’s relevant basic amount of Council Tax for 2014/15 is not excessive and for this reason a referendum will not be required;

(17)

to agree the annual Treasury Management Strategy and Annual Investment Strategy   2014/15 (incorporating the authorised limits, operational boundaries and prudential indicators) as submitted.