Agenda item - Cabinet referrals

To consider the following referrals from Cabinet:

8.1 CA/008/21 19 January 2021 Dacorum Strategic Sites Design Guide

8.2 CA/017/21 09 February 2021 Budget 2021/22

8.3 CA/019/21 09 February 2021 Senior Officer Pay Policy

Resolved:

That the following be approved:

19 January 2021

8.1 CA/008/21 DACORUM STRATEGIC SITES DESIGN GUIDE

Decision

That the draft SPD be adopted.

09 February 2021

8.2 CA/017/21 BUDGET 2021/22

A recorded vote was held:

For: 29 (Allen, Anderson, Banks, Barrett, Bassadone, Beauchamp, Bhinder, Birnie, Chapman, Durrant, Elliot, Griffiths, Guest, Hearn, Hobson, Johnson, Maddern, Suqlain Mahmood, Riddick, Rogers, Silwal, Sinha, G Sutton, R Sutton, Timmis, Townsend, Williams, Woolner and Wyatt-Lowe).

Against: 0

Abstain: 15 (Barry, Claughton, Mayor, England, Freedman, Hollinghurst, Link, McDowell, Pringle, Ransley, Stevens, Symington, Taylor, Tindall and Uttley)

Absent for vote: 5 (Adeleke, Arslan, Imarni, Sobaan Mahmood and Peter)

Therefore it was resolved that the following be approved;

Decision

General Fund Revenue Estimate

a) set a Dacorum Borough Council General Fund Council Tax requirement of £12.406m, and a provisional amount of £13.405m for the combined Borough Council and Parish Councils’ requirement for 2021/22;

b) approve a Band D Council Tax increase of £5 (2.42%) for Dacorum Borough Council;

c) approve the base estimates for 2021/22, as shown in Appendix A1, and the indicative budget forecasts for 2021/22 – 2024/25, as shown in Appendix A2;

d) approve the forecast balances of Revenue Reserves as shown in Appendix J, and approve section 11 of this report as the updated Reserves Strategy;

e) approve increases in Fees and Charges for 2021/22 as set out in Appendices C3, D3, and E3;

f) approve and adopt the Treasury Management Strategy for 2021/22, attached at appendix K, noting the proposed changes to counter party limits detailed in section 4.6’ (amended)

g) approve and adopt the Capital Strategy for 2021/22, attached at Appendix L;

h) note that this budget paper, if approved by Council, will form part of the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

Capital Programme

i) approve the Capital Programme for 2021/22 to 2025/26, as detailed in Appendix I;

j) approve the financing proposals in Appendix I subject to an annual review of the financing options by the Corporate Director (Finance & Operations), in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Resources, during the preparation of the Statement of Accounts.

Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

k) set dwelling rents according to the new MHCLG Rent Standard, which provides for a rent increase of CPI+1% (1.5% in total). The average dwelling rents is proposed to increase to £104.96 in 2021/22, from its current level of £103.43 (based on 52 weeks);

l) approve the HRA estimate for 2021/22 as shown in Appendix F.

Employer Terms and Conditions

m) note that the hourly rate of all Council employees continues to exceed the rate proposed by the rates of the Living Wage Foundation, for 2021/22 (to be reviewed annually thereafter).

Statement by Chief Finance Officer

n) approve the statement by the Chief Finance Officer regarding the robustness of the budget estimates and level of reserves as set out in Appendix M.

o) approve Dacorum Borough Council entering into a Hertfordshire Business Rates pool as described in paras 4.10 to 4.15

09 February 2021

8.3 CA/019/21 SENIOR OFFICER PAY POLICY

Decision

To Council that it adopts the Pay Policy for 2021/22 as set out in appendix 1 to this report.

Resolved:

That the following be approved:

19 January 2021

8.1 CA/008/21 DACORUM STRATEGIC SITES DESIGN GUIDE

Decision

That the draft SPD be adopted.

09 February 2021

8.2 CA/017/21 BUDGET 2021/22

The budget 2021/22 was proposed by Councillor Elliot and seconded by Councillor Williams.

Councillor Elliot made the following statement to support the proposal:

Introduction

“When I stood in the Chamber 12 months ago to recommend my last budget to the Council, no-one could have foretold the events that have had such devastating consequences across the world. My heart goes out to all those that have suffered or lost loved ones to the pandemic, which I know includes many people within Dacorum, including staff and Members.

The destruction wrought by Covid has not been limited to health. The steps taken nationwide to combat the virus have brought challenges of their own, and many local businesses and local families have suffered financial hardship as swathes of the economy have been locked down for months at a time.

Within this challenging environment, Dacorum Borough Council has played a key role in the Covid response, extending help and support to our businesses and communities at a time they needed it most. I am particularly proud that in continuing to provide our day-to-day services, the Council has been a visible beacon of stability amid so much uncertainty. I have no doubt that this consistency and reliability has been reassuring for many residents across Dacorum, but in particular for the most vulnerable within our community.

Support for Business

Since March last year the Council has administrated over ten separate grant schemes on behalf of Central Government. The need to make payments to struggling businesses as quickly as possible has meant that schemes that would ordinarily be designed over a number of months or years, have instead been rolled out within a matter of weeks.

It is a tribute to Council staff, particularly those within the Revenues & Benefits Team and the Economic Development Team that they have stayed on top of constantly evolving Government guidance and paid out £35m of grants to over 3,000 local businesses.

In addition to this, the Council has worked closely with its commercial tenants throughout the last year to ensure it does all it can to support them through the pandemic, and into the recovery phase.

The Council will continue to work closely with its public and private sector partners over the coming months to ensure we do as much as possible to help the economy through the challenging economic times ahead.

Budget context

Over the last 9 years, this council has successfully risen to the challenge of saving over £7m whilst simultaneously protecting and improving the services we provide to our residents. This budget outlines plans to save a further £600k in 2021/22.

The medium-term future of local authority finance will remain uncertain until the outcome of Government’s Fair Funding Review, which will determine how funding will be allocated to local authorities beyond 2021.

That is why this council has proposed a budget for 2021 with a strong focus on sustainability, and continuing to deliver its corporate priorities into the medium-term. We have already made significant strides towards balancing the budget in future years, having identified initiatives of over £600k to address MTFS savings targets beyond 2022.

Continuing to invest in the Borough

Despite the extent of the financial challenges we are facing, this council’s history of prudent financial management means that we are in a position to propose a highly ambitious capital investment programme … in excess of £280m over the next 5 years … to further enhance the services we provide to our residents, and the environment in which they live.

Some of the areas identified for capital investment include:

o £90m investment in our existing housing stock, which continues to provide high quality homes for tens of thousands ofpeople across our borough

o £135m investment in our ambitious and successful housing new-build programme … helping more people to live affordably in an area which has some of the highest house prices in the country

o £50m investment in various ventures which combine social benefit with financial return, including significant investment in a new sports centre in Berkhamsted and plans to develop out the former Civic Centre site in Hemel Hempstead

o £1.4m Investment in facilitating affordable housing developments and delivery of additional temporary accommodation provision.

o £6.5m investment in the Council’s vehicle fleet to enable the continued delivery of our frontline services.

Council Tax

As part of the budget for 2021/22, the Council is proposing to increase Council Tax by £5 for a Band D property, which equates to less than 10 pence per week.

Central government is likely to consider each council’s ability to raise tax when deciding how much funding it will provide in the future … in simple terms, Government is likely to reduce future funding by an amount that it expects the council to raise through increasing its council tax.

Proposing this increase in line with government expectation means that we have done all we can to protect Dacorum’s overall funding position for future years.

Housing

In line with Government guidance the council is proposing to increase housing rents by 1.5%. The average rent for a council property next year will be £104.96 per week, which following the 4-year period of statutory rent reductions means that average rent in Dacorum remains lower than it was in 2015.

Despite this recent period of enforced rent reductions, the Council has continued to make housing delivery one of its key priorities, and the Council recently completed its 338^th new home.

This trend will continue … the Council’s approved plans are to deliver a further 370 homes across the borough over the next 4 years.

We are also investing in the infrastructure that will enable us to deliver our housing obligations to the most vulnerable in our community in the best way possible.

A further 12 new build Temporary Accommodation units were completed in 2020 at Williams House and Howe Grove House to add to the 44 TA beds already available in the council’s purpose built hostel, The Elms.

In Conclusion

Unquestionably, the Council faces significant financial challenges in the years ahead as we play our role in the Covid Recovery Phase.

However, this Council can enter this period feeling confident that with the commitment of its Members and staff we will continue to deliver for our residents.

I would like to thank all Council staff for weighing in and helping out our fantastic Finance team during these challenging times

I commend this budget to full council.”

Councillor Tindall advised that the opposition chose not to propose an alternative budget this year. This was partly due to COVID but also the additional pressures that were already on the officers so they didn’t want to take up any more of their time in preparing a separate budget.

Councillor Williams said Councillor Elliot had clearly laid out the budget proposals and the ambitions within them so he was happy to second those.