Agenda item

To consider the Council’s financial position over the medium term and set a budget requirement and the level of council tax for 2022/23.

The Leader, Councillor Cornell, confirmed that the budgets had been through Committees and Strategy and Resources Committee. Councillor Cornell identified the key areas of the report as follows:

·         The final settlement had now been agreed by government therefore some certainty on funding could be provided for the coming year.

·         The provisional settlement received was better than anticipated and this had been used to help stabilise the financial position and invest in Council priorities.

·       The current Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) would require saving decisions to be made.

·         Inflation was a major factor in the budget.

·         There had been an increase in business rates funding.

·         An additional year of New Homes Bonus grant had been awarded.

·         The details of Council Tax levels were included as an Appendix.

·       A Council Tax increase of £5 was proposed at Band D, an increase of less than 10p per week.

·       The District had seen a 1.9% increase in properties and 34% decrease in the number of long-term empty properties.

·       There was no certainty in terms of staffing costs as the pay award had not been agreed.

A new table had been included to show the changes to the Ubico Contract.

Councillor Cornell passed on her thanks to the Finance team for all their work.

In response to questions from Councillor Stephen Davies the following answers were provided:

• The £68k in Table 2 referred to the running costs of the vehicles for Ubico. The amounts for the fleet programme for Ubico could be found in appendix C.
• Councillor Cornell confirmed that training in bio-diversity could be included for Councillors.
• A Monitoring Officer was being jointly recruited with Cheltenham Borough Council and would be going out to advert shortly.

Proposed by Councillor Cornell and seconded by Councillor Braun.

Councillor Stephen Davies proposed an amendment around the car parking charges to add “h) That all Car Parking charges for the first hour in Stroud Car Parks are frozen for 2022/2023 and that any resulting deficit in car park income be made up from Council reserves.” Councillor Stephen Davies stated that an increase of 10p from 80p to 90p was excessive and was an attack on businesses. He advised that Stroud Chamber of Commerce and Stroud Town Council were opposed to the increase in the parking charges also.

Councillor Housden seconded the amendment.

Councillor Laurie Davies stated that there were bigger issues impacting the highstreet such as increased heating costs, food costs and the cut to Universal Credit.

Councillor Studdert-Kennedy stated that a full review of car parking should be carried out as the increase in cost fell heavily on Stroud town.

Councillor Fenton confirmed that the average increase across all of the car parking charges in Stroud District was 3% which was fairly moderate. Councillor Brine and Hall echoed the comments of Councillor Fenton.

Councillor Housden asked Members to listen to businesses on the high street, shoppers and workers who ask the Council not to increase the cost of car parking. He drew Members attention to the imbalance of parking charges across the district with many towns receiving free parking.

The Leader, Councillor Cornell, drew comparisons to the increase in parking charges that had been agreed at Gloucestershire County Council and of the costs per hour in Cirencester (£1.40) Gloucester (£1.60). The cut in Universal Credit to families within the district had amounted to approximately £0.5m being taken out of the local economy which would have a far worse effect on the high street.

The amendment was put to the vote:

The Leader, Councillor Cornell, stated that she was proud to present her 5^th budget as Leader of the Council and that they had kept the Council finances in good order. She paid tribute to Council Officers who had given above and beyond, local businesses who continued to innovate and inspire and those who worked in the voluntary and community sectors who had helped to keep people safe and supported.

Councillor Davies stated that there should be acknowledgement that the Council had received a good settlement from central government and that the government had helped people with furlough and business support schemes. He agreed that there were some good elements of the budget however if they truly believed in climate change money needed to be included in the budget. He stated that he would be voting against the budget.

Councillor Turner confirmed that the Council had been proactively taking opportunities that arose for the electrification of the fleet of vehicles and stated that the Carbon Neutral 2030 ambitions were embedded throughout the budget.

Councillor Hurst raised concerns for the amounts allocated to the planning and Local Plan budget and that there may be pressures with getting the Local Plan through the public examination.

Councillor Brown offered his support for the budget and highlighted the funding for a new Bio-diversity Officer.

Councillor Braun highlighted 3 reasons why Members should support the budget:

• Protecting the environment – additional £260k for posts and projects on the climate and nature emergency.
• Strengthening and supporting communities - prioritising health and wellbeing, culture and supporting those people who were most in need.
• Supporting a thriving local economy

After being put to a vote, the Motion was carried.