Agenda item

To receive the report of the Director of Finance and Corporate Resources setting out the Council’s Budget for 2006/07 and the Medium Term Financial Plan (General Fund).

 

The recommendations set out in the report were endorsed at the Cabinet meeting held on 8 February 2006.

Councillor Rye moved and Councillor Lavender seconded the report of the Director of Finance and Corporate Resources (No. 307) setting out the Council’s Budget for 2006/07 and the Medium Term Financial Plan (General Fund).

 

NOTED

 

1.         that the recommendations set out in the report were endorsed at the Cabinet meeting held on 8 February 2006.

 

2.         that during the debate Councillor Neville confirmed that in the future special collections of bulky items from peoples homes would be free of charge in an effort to increase recycling levels further.

 

3.            Councillor Charalambos moved and Councillor Taylor seconded the amendment to the revenue budget for 2006/7 detailed below:

 

“With regard to the revenue budget for 2006/7

i.          The net budget requirement in Enfield be set at £202.654m in 2006/7
(incorporating the following changes from the Cabinet recommendation –

additional spending
Budget for ward initiatives £0.930m;
Additional voluntary sector grants £0.350m;
Revenue cost of capital funding for new voluntary sector building £0.150m;
Regeneration funding £0.600m.

additional funding
Contribution from reserves £3.6m;
Reduction in earmarked reserves £2.037m)

ii.         As before.

iii.        As before.

iv.        That the Council Tax at Band D for Enfield services be set at £964.76, a reduction of 0.97%.

 

v.         The statutory calculations and resolutions in Appendix 8 are approved subject to amendment as appropriate by officers.”

The amendment was put to the vote with the following result:

 

In favour 17 votes:

 

Anolue, Brett, Buckland, Charalambous, Cole, Constantinides, During, G. Savva, Giliadi, Goddard, Hasan, Oykener, Richards, Rodin, Sandilands, Taylor, Salako

 

Against 31 votes:

 

Adams, Andrew, Barker, Boast, Chamberlain, Delman, Dreblow , E.Savva, Egan, Eustance, Fallart, Ford, Hall, Hurer, Jackson, Jukes, Laban, Lavender , McCannah, Neville, Nicholas, Pearce, Rye, Schofield, Steven, E.Smith, T.Smith, Vince, Wyatt, Yates and Zinkin

 

The amendment was therefore lost.

 

After a lengthy debate the recommendations detailed in the report and the statutory calculations set out Appendix 8 were put to the vote.

 

RESOLVED

 

1.         to note the comments in paragraph 7.14 regarding Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

 

2.         to note that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee asked for a number of proposals in the budget to be reconsidered as set out in paragraph 4.3 of the report.

 

3.         that the net budget requirement for Enfield be set at £206.261m in 2006/07;

 

4.         that a contribution of £396k be made to the Collection Fund;

 

5.         that, subject to final pupil count data, approval is given to expenditure of £186.391m on the schools’ budget, funded from the Dedicated Schools’ Grant;

 

6.         that the Council Tax at Band D for Enfield’s services be set at £998.55

(paragraph 7.9), an increase of 2.49%;

 

7.         to note the information regarding the requirements of the Prudential Code detailed in Section 9;

 

8.         to agree the proposals for allocating resources to capital projects as set out in paragraph 9.19;

 

9.         to agree the recommendations regarding the additions to the capital programme, as set out in Appendix 11;

 

10.       to approve the Prudential Indicators, the Treasury Management Strategy and the criteria for investments, set out in Section 9 and Appendix 10;

 

11.       to note the forecast for the medium term as set out in Section 10. With regard to the robustness of the 2006/07 budget and the adequacy of the Council’s reserves and balances;

 

12.       to note the risks and uncertainties inherent in the 2006/07 budget and the medium term financial plan (section 11);

 

13.       to agree the recommendations of the Director of Finance & Corporate Resources regarding the use of any underspends in the current financial year (paragraph 12.5);

 

14.       to note the comments of the Director of Finance & Corporate Resources regarding the recommended levels of contingencies, balances and reserves (Section 12) and has regard to the Director’s statement when making final decisions on the 2006/07 budget.

 

15.       The statutory calculations set out below be approved subject to amendment as appropriate by officers:

 

i.          it be noted that at its meeting on 17th January 2006, the Audit Committee calculated the number of 106,755 as its Council Tax base for 2006/07, in accordance with the Local Authorities (Calculation of Tax base) Regulations.

 

ii.         the following amounts be now calculated by the Council for the year 2006/07 in accordance with Section 32 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992:

 

iii.            £807,286,000 being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for gross expenditure, calculated in accordance with Section 32(2) of the Act;

 

iv.            £601,025,000 being the aggregate of the amounts, which the Council estimates for income, calculated in accordance with Section 32(3) of the Act.

 

v.         £ 206,261,000 being the amount by which the aggregate at (a) above exceeds the aggregate at (b) above (net expenditure), calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 32(4) of the Act, as its budget requirement for the year.

 

vi.        £ 99,660,397 being the aggregate of the sums which the Council estimates will be payable for the year into its General Fund in respect of redistributed non-domestic rates and Revenue Support Grant, adjusted by the amount which the Council estimates will be transferred in the year from its General Fund to its Collection Fund.

 

vii.       £ 106,600,603 being (the sum of c-d) the residual amount required to be collected from the Council Tax payers.

 

viii.      £ 998.55 being the residual amount at (e) above, divided by the Council Tax base of 106,755 be the Enfield precept on the Collection Fund for 2006/07 at the level of Band D.

 

Valuation Band	Proportion in relation to Band D	Enfield £
A	6/9	665.70
B	7/9	776.65
C	8/9	887.60
D	1	998.55
E	11/9	1220.45
F	13/9	1442.35
G	15/9	1664.25
H	2	1997.10

 

being the amounts given by multiplying the amount at (f) above by the number which, in proportion set out in Section 5(1) of the Act, is applicable to dwellings listed in a particular valuation band divided by the number which in that proportion is applicable to dwellings listed in valuation Band D, calculated by the Council in accordance with Section 36(1) of the Act, as the amounts to be taken into account for the year in respect of categories of dwellings listed in different valuation bands;

 

ix)        it will be noted that, for the year 2006/07, the Greater London Authority (GLA) has stated the following amounts in precepts issued to the Council, in accordance with Section 40 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, for each of the categories of the dwellings shown below:

           

Valuation Band	Proportion in relation to Band D	Enfield £
A	6/9	192.41
B	7/9	224.47
C	8/9	256.54
D	1	288.61
E	11/9	352.75
F	13/9	416.88
G	15/9	481.02
H	2	577.22

 

(x)        having calculated the aggregate amount in each case of the amounts at (ii)(g) and (iii) above, the Council, in accordance with Section 30(2) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, sets the following amounts as the amounts of Council Tax for the year 2006/07 for each of the categories of dwellings shown below:

 

           

Valuation Band	Proportion in relation to Band D	Enfield £
A	6/9	858.11
B	7/9	1001.12
C	8/9	1144.14
D	1	1287.16
E	11/9	1573.20
F	13/9	1859.23
G	15/9	2145.27
H	2	2574.32