Agenda and minutes

Former Councillor Brian Shore

The Lord Mayor reflected upon the sad loss of former Councillor and Alderman, Brian Shore. Brian was a Councillor between 1983 and 1995 where he represented Abbey, Mowmacre and Rushey Mead wards and he was made an Alderman in June 2013.

Council stood for a moments silence in his memory.

Fire Evacuation

The Lord Mayor drew Council’s attention to the fire evacuation procedure.

The Lord Mayor informed Council that the Standards Committee had granted a general dispensation to Councillors who were Council tenants, or had family members who were Council tenants. This meant that Councillors who were tenants or had family members who were tenants would not be required to leave the chamber for consideration of the General Fund Revenue budget or the Housing Revenue Account should they receive a dispensation.

The Monitoring Officer further advised Council that if a Member wished to benefit from the dispensation, they would need to identify themselves at the meeting in order to receive the dispensation, and it would be recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

The following members sought and received dispensations:

Councillor Thalukdar – family member was a Council tenant.

Councillor Westley – family members were Council tenants.

Councillor Alphonso – family member was a Council tenant.

Councillor Hunter - family member was a Council tenant.

Councillor Aqbany – family member was a Council tenant.

Councillor Halford – self and family members were Council tenants.

Councillor Aldred, - family members were Council tenants.

Councillor Shelton – brother was a Council tenant.

Councillor Chamund – family member was a Council tenant.

Councillor Joshi – family member was a Council tenant.

Councillor Cank – family members were Council tenants.

Councillor Byrne – self and family members were Council tenants.

The Lord Mayor invited Members to declare any further interests they might have in the business on the agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applied to them.

No further declarations were made.

None.

4.1       General Fund Revenue Budget 2019/20 to 2021/22

4.2       Housing Revenue Account Budget (including Capital Programme) 2019/20 to 2021/22

4.3       Treasury Management Strategy 2019/20

4.4       Investment Strategy

4.5       Treasury Policy

General Fund Revenue Budget 2019/20 to 2021/22

The City Mayor submitted his proposed budget for 2019/20 to 2021/22. The report contained details of the financial pressures facing the Council, the proposed budget strategy including assessments of risk, and impact and consultation outcomes.

Details of the City Mayor’s Recommendation of General Fund Revenue Budget 2018/19 and the General Fund Revenue Budget and Council Tax 2018/19 – Formal Resolutions were available at the meeting and are attached to these minutes.

Moved by the City Mayor and seconded by Councillor Singh:

28.       That Council:

1)   Thanks partners and scrutiny committees who have commented on our draft budget;

2)   Notes the comments made in the City Mayor’s formal Decision Notice published on 12 February 2019 and attached as Appendix A to the script and available at the meeting;

3)   Approves the recommendations set out in section 3.1 of the report ‘General Fund Revenue Budget 2019/20 to 2021/22’ without amendment; and

4)   Approves the formal budget resolution as set out in Appendix B to the script and available at the meeting.

The Lord Mayor put the motion to the vote.

It was noted that under the requirements of The Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 the names of the Councillors voting for or against the proposition or abstaining would be recorded by the City Barrister and Monitoring Officer and included in the minutes of the meeting.

For the motion:

Councillors Aldred, Alfonso, Aqbany, Bajaj, Barton, Bhavsar, Byrne, Cank, Cassidy, Chaplin, Chamund, Clair, Clarke, Cleaver, Cole, Connelly, Corrall, Cutkelvin,  Fonseca, Govind, Halford, Hunter, Joshi, Khote, Kitterick, Malik, Master, Moore, Myers, Osman, Pantling, Patel, Rae Bhatia, Riyait, Russell, Sandhu, Shelton, Singh, Singh Johal, Sood, Soulsby (City Mayor), Thalukdar, Unsworth, Waddington, Westley, Willmott.

Against the motion:

Councillors Grant (Lord Mayor), Porter.

The Lord Mayor declared the motion carried.

Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Budget (including Capital Programme) 2019/20 to 2021/22

A report was considered which set out the proposed Housing Revenue Account (HRA) budget (including Capital Programme) for the 3 years from 2019/20 to 2021/22. It was noted that the budget proposals were in the context of the government requirement that rents were reduced by 1% p.a. for the four year period 2016-2020.  The proposed budget included the final year of the four-year rent reduction. 

The formal Assistant City Mayor – Housing decision notice published on 11 February 2019 was available at the meeting and is attached to these minutes.

Moved by Councillor Connelly, seconded by Councillor Westley and carried:

29.       That Council:

1)   Thanks Tenants’ and Leaseholders’ Forum, Housing Scrutiny and others who have commented on our draft Housing Revenue Account budget;

2)   Notes the comments made in the Assistant City Mayor, Housing’s formal Decision Notice published on 11 February 2019 and attached as Appendix C to the script and available at the meeting;

3)   Approves the recommendations set out in section 3 of the report ‘Housing Revenue Account Budget (including HRA Capital Programme) 2019/20 to 2021/2022’  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

There being no urgent items of business identified the Lord Mayor declared the meeting closed at 6.13pm.