Agenda and minutes

The Lord Mayor invited the Monitoring Officer to make a statement in relation to declarations for the budget meeting.

The Monitoring Officer reminded Members that there was no requirement to declare any interests already on their registers.

He noted that Members had been contacted in advance of the meeting regarding interests, but no issues had been raised.

He also explained that Section 106 of the Local Government Act 1992 made it an offence for any Member who was two months or more in arrears of Council tax to remain and vote on the General Fund Revenue Budget item, incorporating as it does a decision about the setting of Council Tax. However, background checks had indicated that no Elected Member was in this position.

He further outlined details of a dispensation which, following consultation with the Standards Committee, he could grant to elected Members who were Council tenants or had family members or close associates who were Council tenants. Without this dispensation it would not be possible for members with an interest in this area to vote on either the General Fund Revenue Budget or the Housing Revenue Account. The following members sought and were granted a dispensation:

Councillor Aqbany

Councillor Cank

Councillor Gopal

Councillor Halford

Councillor Orton

Councillor Pickering

Councillor Porter

Councillor Westley

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 January 2025 are available to view at: Agenda for Council on Thursday, 16 January 2025, 5:00 pm

Copies are also available from Governance Services on (0116) 454 6350 or committees@leicester.gov.uk

The Lord Mayor, seconded by the Deputy Lord Mayor and carried:

"That the minutes of Council held on 19 February 2025, be taken as read and are approved as a correct record.”

Council is asked to approve the recommendations set out on page 3.

Please note that a full record of the of the discussion is available on the

recording of the meeting at Budget Council 19 February 2025 - YouTube at time 0:05:20-0:43:10.

Councillor Cutkelvin, seconded by City Mayor, to move:-

“Council is asked the following:

Approve the Housing Revenue and Capital budgets for 2025/26, as described in the report submitted by the Director of Housing, including:

      i.        Approve rent changes for tenants for 2025/26 as follows:

-       2.7% increase to core rent;

-       2.7% increase to garage rent.

-       2.7% increase for Hostel rent and service charges;

-       4% increase for Gypsy and Traveller plot rent;

    ii.        Approve service charge changes for tenants and leaseholders for 2025/26 as follows:

-       A reduction in the charges for District Heating as set out in section 4.6.3 of the report, including a 25% reduction in the variable charge for metered heat, a 20% reduction in the fixed metered charges, and a 26% reduction for those without meters;

-       reducing the charge for waylighting by 9.1%;

-       applying increases to all other service charges of 1.7%, in line with CPI.

   iii.        Agree to delegate to the City Mayor the authority to reduce service charges by the extent to which this represents a change to the cost of providing those services.

   iv.        Note the equality impact assessment of the proposed revenue and capital reductions required to present a balanced budget, at Appendix J;

    v.        Note that the scheme of virement (included within the General Fund Revenue Budget report which is also on your agenda) applies also to the HRA budget with total expenditure and total income acting as budget ceilings for this purpose;

   vi.        Agree that the delegations and determinations applicable to the main capital programme (which is also on your agenda) shall also apply to the capital programme in the Director of Housing’s report;

  vii.        Note that the capital strategy in the main capital programme report also applies to the HRA.”

Following the debate, the Lord Mayor put the amended motion to the vote and declared the motion carried.

Council is asked to approve the recommendations set out on pages 94 and 95.

Please note that a full record of the of the discussion is available on the recording of the meeting at Budget Council 19 February 2025 - YouTube at time 0:43:10-1:49:07.

City Mayor seconded by Councillor Cassidy, to move:-

a.    “Approve the release of the Capital Fund, a revenue reserve, to the Managed Reserve strategy of £90m. (see para 4.4 of the report submitted by the Director of Finance) ;

b.    Approve the change in financing for the 2024/25 capital programme, to include prudential borrowing (see para 4.5 of the report);

c.    Approve reductions to the 2024/25 capital programme as described at paragraph 4.8;

d.     Approve the capital programme, together with the necessary prudential borrowing, for schemes described in this report and summarised at Appendices 2 to 5;

e.    For those schemes designated immediate starts, delegate authority to the lead director to commit expenditure, subject to the normal requirements of contract procedure rules, rules concerning land acquisition and finance procedure rules;

f.     Delegate authority to the City Mayor to determine a plan of spending for each policy provision, that may be added in-year, and to commit expenditure up to the maximum available;

g.    For the purposes of finance procedure rules:

·         Determine that service resources shall consist of service revenue contributions; HRA revenue contributions; and government grants/third party contributions ringfenced for specific purposes.

·         Designate the operational estate, the children’s capital maintenance programme, the highways maintenance programme and the transport improvement programme as programme areas, within which the director can reallocate resources to meet operational requirements.

h.    Delegate to the City Mayor:

·         Authority to increase any scheme in the programme, or add a new scheme to the programme, subject to a maximum of £10m corporate resources in each instance and to borrow whilst remaining within the prudential limits for debt which are proposed in the treasury management strategy (elsewhere on the Council  agenda);

·         Authority to reduce or delete any capital scheme, subject to a maximum reduction of £10m; and

·         Authority to transfer any “policy provision” to the “immediate starts” category.

i.      Delegate to directors, in consultation with the relevant deputy/assistant mayor, authority to incur expenditure up to a maximum of £250k per scheme in respect of policy provisions, that may be added in-year, on design and other professional fees and preparatory studies, but not any other type of expenditure.

j.      Approve the capital strategy at Appendix 6.”

AMENDMENT

Moved by Councillor Rae Bhatia, seconded by Councillor Kitterick:

“This Council accepts the following amendments to the Capital Budget 2025-26 to find savings of £4.78m from the sections listed below and spend them on services/projects also listed below. These amendments focus on the frontline services which the city so desperately needs to preserve and improve. This amendment also introduces extra rigour and control on the delegate powers to City Mayor also listed below.

1.            Reduce the Fleet Replacement programme from £8.3m to £7.3m thus generating the unallocated saving of £1m (Page 97 section 1.8)

2.            Reduce the Policy Provisions further from £19.4m  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3b

Council is asked to approve the recommendations set out on pages 123 and 124.

Please note that a full record of the of the discussion is available on the recording of the meeting at Budget Council 19 February 2025 - YouTube at time 1:49:07-2:16:30.

City Mayor seconded by Councillor Cassidy, to move:-

“Council is recommended to:

a.    approve the three-year budget strategy described in the report submitted by the Director of Finance;

b.    approve the proposed budget and council tax for 2025/26 as described in the report, including the recommendations in the formal budget resolution;

c.    approve the budget ceilings for each service shown at Appendix 1 to the report;

d.    approve the scheme of virement described in Appendix 2 to the report;

e.    approve the use of the £90m capital fund to support the revenue budget strategy (dependent on decisions taken in respect of the capital programme for 2025/26, which is elsewhere on the Council’s agenda);

f.     approve the changes to earmarked reserves to support the overall strategy as described in Appendix 5;

g.    note the view of the Director of Finance’s on the adequacy of reserves and the estimates used in preparing the budget;

h.     note the equality implications arising from the proposed tax increase, as described in paragraph 15 and Appendix 3;

i.      note the medium-term financial strategy and forecasts presented at Appendix 4, and the significant financial challenges that lie ahead;

j.      in relation to council tax for empty properties:

·         Thank those who responded to our consultation, the results of which are described at Appendix 6;

·         Note the equality implications arising from a decision to change council tax payable in respect of empty properties, as described at Appendix 6A;

·         Change the current policies as described at Appendix 6, specifically to commence charging Council Tax on empty, unfurnished property as soon as it becomes empty; and to apply exemptions introduced by the Government.

k.    approve the capital receipts flexibility policy at Appendix 7, to come into force if and when a government direction is received.”

Following the debate, the Lord Mayor put the motion to the vote.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 30(c) of the Council’s Constitution, a recorded vote was taken.

For the motion:

Councillors: Agath, Aldred, Aqbany, Bajaj, Barton, Batool, Bonham, Cassidy, Clarke, Cole, Cutkelvin, Dawood, Dempster, Halford, Kaur Saini, Malik

Mohammed, Moore, Pantling, Pickering, Russell, Singh Johal, Singh-Sangha, Sood, Soulsby (City Mayor), Surti, Waddington, Whittle, Zaman.

Against the motion:

Councillors: Adatia, Barnes, Cank, Chauhan, Dave, Gopal, Haq, Joshi, Karavadra, Kennedy-Lount, Kitterick, Mahesh, Modhwadia, Orton, Osman, Porter, Rae Bhatia, Singh Patel, Westley.

The Lord Mayor declared the motion carried.

Council is asked to note and approve the recommendations set out on page 192.

Please note that a full record of the of the discussion is available on the recording of the meeting at Budget Council 19 February 2025 - YouTube at time 2:16:30-2:27:50.

City Mayor seconded by Councillor Cassidy, to move:-

“The Council is recommended to approve:

•      The Treasury Policy at Appendix 1, including the 12 treasury Management Practices.

•      The Treasury Management Strategy at Appendix 2 (including Treasury Limits at Appendix 2a, and Treasury Investment Strategy at Appendix 2b).

•      The Investment Strategy at Appendix 3.

•      Delegation of authority to the Director of Finance to revise the authorised limit and operational boundary, if required once work on implementing IFRS 16 leases is completed during the year end process.”

The Lord Mayor declared the motion carried.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 7.30pm.