Agenda and minutes

None.

At the request of the Lord Mayor the Monitoring Officer addressed Council and gave the following advice regarding the declaration of interests at the meeting.

Members did not need to declare interests that already appeared on their Register of Interests, which is a publically accessible and available document. The Localism Act 2011 expressly excuses a Member from having to re-declare interests that appear on the Register.

Over and above interests declared on the Register, Members had, following the Monitoring Officer’s written invitation issued in January, given details of items they wished to declare at the meeting and these were appended to the Council script and would appear in the minutes when published.  Therefore there was no need to verbally re-declare these at the meeting unless these were prejudicial ODIs or DPIs that would require the Member to leave the room and desist from voting. As always, the judgement remains one for the Member to make, with the Monitoring Officer only able to offer advice.

The Monitoring Officer advised that under the provisions of section 106 Local Government Finance Act 1992 any Member who was in two or more months of arrears of Council Tax should not vote on the items for consideration at the meeting. Criminal liability attaches to such a Member who does so.

The Monitoring Officer stated that he had been asked to grant one category of dispensation, without which in his opinion it might be necessary for those members to leave the Chamber. After consultation with the Standards Committee I thereby grant a dispensation to elected members who are council tenants (or have family members or close associates who are council tenants) to enable them to remain and participate and vote on both the Budget proposals and, crucially, the Housing Revenue Account proposals that come before the meeting tonight.  It was noted that the names of those members covered by this dispensation would appear in the minutes of the meeting. Members were asked to raise their hand if they wish to be granted the benefit of this dispensation and to declare why.

Councillor Clayton with the approval of the Lord Mayor sought to clarify that if a Member was a Council tenant or had a family member in that position a dispensation should be sought.  The Monitoring Officer confirmed this was the case.

In response to the above statement the following Members sought and received

dispensations:

Councillor Potter – Council tenant and family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Aqbany - family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Fonseca – family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Shelton – family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Joshi – family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Byrne – family member who is a Council tenant

Councillor Mayat – family member who is a Council tenant

It was noted that Members had identified interests as below:

3.1   General Fund Revenue Budget 2014/15 to 2015/16

3.2 Housing Revenue Account Budget (including Capital Programme) 2014/15

GENERAL FUND REVENUE BUDGET 2014/15 TO 2015/16

The City Mayor submitted his proposed budget for 2014/15 to 2015/16.  The report contained details of the budget strategy and ceilings, comments received from scrutiny, trades unions and partners and a range of proposals including the scheme of virement.

Details of the recommendation of the City Mayor, details of the Council Tax resolution and an amended minute extract from Children and Young People and Schools Scrutiny Commission on 4 February were available at the meeting and are attached to these minutes.

Moved by the City Mayor and seconded by the Deputy City Mayor:

36.  That Council:

1)    Thank partners, scrutiny committees, trade unions and others who have commented on our draft budget;

2)    Note the comments made in my formal Decision Notice dated 25 February and attached as Appendix B;

3)    Note a revision to the collection fund surplus for 2013/14 reported in January and referred to in paragraph 12.17 of the Council report, arising from Government guidance on providing for the cost of backdated appeals;

4)    Approve the recommendations set out in section 3.1 of the report ‘General Fund Revenue Budget 2014/15 – 2015/16’ without amendment;

5)    Approve the formal budget resolution as set out in section 2 of Appendix C.

Councillors Clayton, Kitterick and Moore rose to request that the names of the Councillors voting for or against the proposition be recorded by the Monitoring Officer in the minutes of the meeting under the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 29.  It was noted that this request was made in response to the recent change in Government regulations.

For the motion:

Councillors

Alfonso, Aqbany, Bajaj, Barton, Bhatti, Bhavasar, Byrne, Chaplin, Chowdhury, Clair, Clarke, Clayton, Cleaver, Cole, Connelly, Cooke, Corrall, Dawood, Dempster, Fonseca, Gugnani, Joshi, Kitterick, Mayat, Meghani, Moore, Naylor, Newcombe, Osman, Palmer, V Patel, Potter, Riyait, Russell, Sandhu, Sangster, Senior, Shelton, Singh, City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, Unsworth, Wann, Westley, High Bailiff Councillor Cassidy, Deputy Lord Mayor Councillor Thomas, Lord Mayor Councillor Kamal.

Against the motion

Councillor Grant

There were no abstentions.

The Lord Mayor declared the motion carried.

HOUSING REVENUE ACCOUNT BUDGET (INCLUDING CAPITAL PROGRAMME) 2014/15

The Assistant City Mayor for Housing submitted a report which gave details of the Housing Revenue Account revenue budget and capital programme for 2014/15 together with details of the rules regarding scheme approvals and proposed rent and service charge increases.

Moved by Councillor Connelly, seconded by the City Mayor and carried:

37. That Council:

1)    approve the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) budget for 2014/15 as given in Appendix A to the report, including the efficiency savings and growth items detailed in sections 5.1.9 and 5.1.10;

2)    agree a rent increase of 3.2% and a service charge increase of 3% (excluding gas charges);

3)    approve the HRA Capital Programme for 2014/15 and the draft programme for 2015/16 and 2016/17, as set out in Appendix E to the report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

None.

Close of Meeting

There being no other business the Lord Mayor declared the meeting closed at 6.43pm.