Issue - meetings

To receive a report from the Chief Executive, Monitoring Officer, and the S.151 Officer:

a)    Budget Addendum (Pages 105 - 108)

b)    Budget 2025/26 and Medium Term Financial Strategy 2025/26-2027/28 Report and Appendices (Pages 109 - 284)

c)    Extract of the minutes of the meeting of Cabinet held on 4 February 2025. (Pages 285 - 288)

d)    Notes from the budget briefings with Trade Union representatives, and representatives of non-domestic ratepayers (Pages 289 - 292)

e)    Report of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee meeting held on 28 January 2025 - consideration of the draft Budget. (Pages 293 - 300)

f)     Proposed amendments to the budget

                      i.        Amendment A - Cllr Jon Hubbard - Free Swimming (Pages 301 - 302)

                    ii.        Amendment B - Cllr Jon Hubbard - Reablement Services (Pages 303 - 304)

g)    Report of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee meeting held on 13 February 2025 - consideration of draft Budget Amendments (to follow)

The Chairman introduced the item and provided details of the reports which had been circulated. She explained the procedures to be followed for consideration of the budget, including debate on any proposed amendments.

She then invited Cllr Richard Clewer, Leader of the Council, to present the proposed budget.

Cllr Clewer proposed a motion to adopt the recommendations as set out in the Summons. This was seconded by Cllr Nick Botterill, Cabinet Member for Finance, Development Management, and Strategic Planning.

Cllr Clewer stated that the finances of Wiltshire Council were in good shape, despite a challenging backdrop caused by issues such as the Covid-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine. He thanked Wiltshire Council’s officers, Overview and Scrutiny committees, his Cabinet and group for their hard work over the past four years. He stated that the administration had delivered in numerous areas, including improving service delivery, decreasing fly tipping, reducing potholes, keeping all of Wiltshire’s libraries open and cutting emissions. He stated that the budget would only require an increase of 4.5 percent in council tax when most other authorities were raising funds by the maximum 4.99 percent.

Cllr Clewer contrasted the financial position of Wiltshire Council with other authorities he stated were being forced to sell assets or seek extraordinary financial support to balance their budgets. However, Cllr Clewer underlined his disappointment with some aspects of central government policy towards Wiltshire. These included a reduction in grant funding of £6.2 million, an 84 percent increase in Wiltshire’s housebuilding targets, insufficient funding for the High Needs Block, and rejection from the priority stream for the creation of strategic authorities as requested at the meeting on 9 January 2025.

Cllr Clewer criticised the lack of any proposed amendments to the budget at the meeting, though argued the cumulative value of previous proposed amendments in other years would have reduced the council’s budgetary reserves.

The Chairman then invited Cllr Graham Wright, Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee, to comment on the proposed budget and present the report of the meeting of the committee held on 28 January 2025. Cllr Wright also presented the report from the meeting on 13 February 2025 held to discuss budget amendment proposals.

Cllr Wright explained that both meetings had included questions and comments designed to explore the impact and implications of any budget proposals or amendments. He thanked the three select committees for discussing aspects of the budget related to their remits, and for the scrutiny undertaken by the Financial Planning Task Group, and commended his report to Full Council.

The Chairman then invited group leaders to comment on the proposed budget.

Cllr Ian Thorn, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, stated that it was important that people did not pay additional tax unless it was absolutely necessary.  He also took the opportunity to thank the council’s officers for the role that they played in financial management, stressing the importance of public service.

He argued that amendments put forward by the Liberal Democrat Group in previous years  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13

To consider amendments from any political group or individual Members on the initial draft of the executive proposed budget.

Please note a report from the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee meeting which took place on 28 January 2025 has been included as an appendix to the minutes.

Any amendments that may be received will be circulated as soon as they are available.

A budget proposal was agreed by Cabinet on 4 February 2025 for discussion at Full Council on 25 February 2025, following its consideration by the Committee at its meeting on 28 January 2025.

On 5 February 2025 proposed amendments to that budget were received from Cllr Jon Hubbard

The amendments were presented as detailed in the agenda supplement.

Amendment A – Free swimming for children and young people during school holidays

The proposal sought to introduce free swimming for children and young people during school holidays across Council run facilities within Wiltshire. This would cover all school holidays including half term breaks. The proposal would increase Council Tax by 0.115% in 2025/26 resulting in an impact of £1.288m over the MTFS period and would have a cumulative positive impact on the Council Tax income for the 2026/27 and 2027/28 financial years.

Comments from statutory officers including the Section 151 Officer and Monitoring Officer were set out in the agenda supplement with further clarifications set out in the appended Committee report.

Amendment B – Increased capacity in the Reablement service

The proposal sought a permanent increase in Wiltshire Reablement Services. It was proposed that this would deliver increased capacity to work with individuals to improve levels of independence and quality of life and reduce reliance of funded long-term care. The proposal would increase Council Tax by 0.375% in 2025/26 resulting in an impact of £4.201m over the MTFS period and would have a cumulative positive impact on the Council Tax income for the 2026/27 and 2027/28 financial years.

Comments from statutory officers including the Section 151 Officer and Monitoring Officer were set out in the agenda supplement with further clarifications set out in the appended Committee report.

The Committee discussed the proposed amendments as detailed fully in the report appended to these minutes, seeking details on what data had been used to calculate cost implications of the amendments, why the amendments had been proposed and the relation of the amendments to the Business Plan.

At the conclusion of discussion, it was,

Resolved:

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee agreed:

1. To thank Cllr Hubbard for submitting his budget proposals to the Committee and to note that they have been scrutinised.
2. To ask Full Council to take note of the comments of the Committee, which will be presented in a report.