Purpose

This report sets out the revised Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) and options to balance the budget in 2024/25 and 2025/26.

Decision

a)    Agree that the proposed budget should make use of the flexibility from Government to increase Council Tax by 2.99%, which will increase Council Tax revenue by £366k a year and will result in a Band D Council Tax increase of £5.65 to £195.52 per year;

b)   Request Audit & Governance Committee to consider the savings proposals and advise Executive of any significant issues they believe may arise;

c)    Agree to present proposed savings requirements, that will need to be delivered to balance the budget in the medium term, the delivery profile of which without any smoothing is as follows:

2024/25£1.179 million

2025/26£5.003 million

2026/27£0

2027/28£0.534 million;

d)   Agree to propose the use of the General Reserve and the Interest Equalisation Reserve in order to smooth the delivery of the substantial proposed savings targets over the Medium Term Financial Plan;

e)    Agree to propose an amended Capital Programme so as to reduce revenue costs of Minimum Revenue Provision and interest by £1,514k per annum on current interest rates, a total saving of £7.442 million of over the MTFP period.  Expenditure will be prioritised for:

                          i.          essential property maintenance to meet statutory requirements or to prevent loss or damage to neighbouring properties;

                        ii.          investment in ICT to continue but that the budget carry forward that has not been used for two years is deleted;

                      iii.          invest to save initiatives where the business case indicates that the cost of the investment will be recovered in under 10 years;

                      iv.          to allow pausing of construction of the Arts Centre at Old River Lane until such time as debt levels have fallen sufficiently to make the revenue impacts of new borrowing affordable while at the same time undertaking landscaping works on the arts centre site so that it is an attractive site rather than an undeveloped area blighting the retail and commercial units in the City Heart scheme;

                        v.          provide up to £170k for essential maintenance works for the URC Church Hall in Bishop’s Stortford;

                      vi.          completion of Hertford Theatre, at as low a cost as possible, so that the entire venue is opened and run on a strictly commercial basis to maximise income; and

                    vii.          investment in depot works and waste containers for the new waste and recycling contract.

f)      Delegate to the Head of Strategic Finance & Property, in consultation with the Executive Member for Financial Sustainability, the authority to amend the proposed budget and Medium-Term Financial Plan to be put to the Audit & Governance Committee on 30 January 2024 in order to reflect the Local Government Finance Settlement and other emerging information, so that the committee can consider the must complete and up to date information.