Content

RESOLVED that Mayor and Cabinet:

1.           
notes and asks Council to note the 2024/25 forecast projected
overall variance of £26.0m, after the use of corporate
provisions and reserves, or 8.8% of the agreed budget of
£293.838m as set out in Section 6 of this report and that
this year-end overspend will be met from corporate provisions and
reserves;

2.           
endorses and asks Council to endorse the budget cut reduction
measures of £0.850m (previously agreed) and £3.848m
(agreed in 2024/25), for 2025/26 as set out in Section 6 of the
report and summarised in Appendix Y1 and Y2 respectively;

3.           
agrees and asks Council to agree the allocation of £65.023m
of resources from; the corporate risks and pressures, Adult Social
Care precept, social care grant, Adult Social Care market
sustainability and improvement fund, New Homes Bonus, Recovery
Grant, Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant, government
funding for increased employers National Insurance contributions
and reserves in 2025/26 to be invested in funding quantified budget
pressures and opportunities, both recurring and once-off, as set
out in Section 6;

4.           
agrees to recommend to Council that a General Fund Budget
Requirement of £312.515m for 2025/26 be approved;

5.           
asks Council to agree to a 4.99% increase in Lewisham’s
Council Tax element. This will result in a Band D equivalent
Council Tax level of £1,644.75 for Lewisham’s services
and £2,135.13 overall. This represents an overall increase in
Council Tax for 2025/26 of 4.77% and is subject to the Greater
London Authority (GLA) precept for 2025/26 being increased by
£18.98 (i.e. 4.03%) from £471.40 to £490.38, in
line with the GLA’s draft budget proposals;

6.           
notes the final Settlement Funding Assessment (SFA) figure for
2025/26 has not yet been announced (including the NIC funding) and
agrees to delegate authority to the Executive Director for
Corporate Resources to include any change to the provisional SFA of
£138,890,519 in the Budget report for Council with any
difference to the position set out in this report covered from
provisions and reserves as necessary;

7.           
notes the provisional and estimated precept and levies from the GLA
and other bodies as detailed in Appendix Y6 and agrees to delegate
authority to the Executive Director for Corporate Resources to
include any changes once confirmed in the Budget report for Council
with any difference covered from provisions and reserves as
necessary;

8.           
notes and asks Council to note the Council Tax Ready Reckoner
which, for illustrative purposes, sets out the Band D equivalent
Council Tax at various levels of increase. This is explained in
Section 6 of the report with more detail in Appendix Y4;

9.           
asks that the Executive Director for Corporate Resources issues
cash limits to all Directorates once the 2025/26 Revenue Budget is
agreed;

10.        
considers, and asks Council to consider, the Section 25 Statement
from the Chief Finance Officer, the Executive Director for
Corporate Resources. This is attached at Appendix Y5;

11.        
agrees and asks Council to agree the draft statutory calculations
for 2025/26 as set out at Appendix Y6;

12.        
notes and asks Council to note the prospects for the revenue budget
for 2025/26 and future years, including the planned use of
£21.745m of reserves to enable the setting of a balanced
budget, with the need for at least £30m of budget reductions
to be implemented in 2026/27 to remove this reliance as set out in
Sections 6 and 7;

13.        
agrees and asks officers to continue to develop firm proposals to
redesign and transform services and inform the capital strategy by
bringing them forward in good time to support the work towards a
savings and investment round to help plan early to meet the future
forecast medium term finance strategy objectives;

14.        
agrees to write-off 16 cases of Former Tenants’ Arrears
related to Temporary Accommodation stock totalling
£326,710.42, as set out in Appendix Y10;

15.        
agrees to write-off one case of Business Rates Arrears totalling
£142,383.75, as set out in Appendix Y10;

16.        
agrees to write off one case of Adult Social Care Sundry Debt
Arrears totalling £59,486.63, as set out in Appendix
Y10;

Other Grants (within the General
Fund)

17.        
notes and asks Council to note the adjustments to and impact of
various specific grants for 2025/26 on the General Fund as set out
in Section 6 of this report;

18.        
agrees the award of the anticipated UK Shared Prosperity Fund
(UKSPF) grant, anticipated to be in the region of £1m, and
delegate agreeing the grant conditions to the Executive Director
for Corporate Resources;
 
Fees and Charges

19.        
approves the approach to setting 2025/26 fees and charges for
chargeable services in Section 6 of the report and attached at
Appendix Y8;

Dedicated Schools Grant and Pupil
Premium

20.        
note and recommends that Council notes the provisional gross
Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocation for 2025/26 of
£395.95m before the Department for Education’s
(DfE’s) adjustments to fund Academy schools;

21.        
notes and recommends that Council notes the provisional DSG
allocation for £257.08m be the Schools’ Budget (Schools
Block) for 2025/26 covering both maintained schools and academies,
and that this includes streamlining of grants for teachers pay
(2023/24 award), Core Schools Budget Grant and the Teachers’
Pensions Grant totalling £13.5m;

22.        
notes an increase in pupil unit funding for primary of £471
and secondary of £677 (after allowing for the streamlining of
the teacher related grant funding as noted in 2.23). However, there
has been an overall reduction of 325 pupils, 311 in primary and 14
secondary school equating to a loss of approximately £2m;

23.        
notes that following the Schools Forum meeting on the 20 January
2025, submission has been made to the DfE recommending the
application of the National Funding Formula (including unit values)
allowing for a -0.15% (minus) Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG);

24.        
agrees and recommends that Council agrees, as recommended by
Schools Forum, the once-off transfer of circa £1m of Schools
Block funding to the High Needs Block, a 0.5% transfer;

25.        
notes, and asks Council to note, the construct and allocation of
£2.96m for the Central Schools Services Block allocation for
2025/26, a continued reduction of £0.260m (20%), plus formula
led element increase of £0.19m, which is rolled in funding
and not new funding;

26.        
notes, and asks Council to note, the provisional High Needs Block
of £83.96m to support the Council’s statutory duty with
regards to Special Education Needs (SEN), a net increase of
£5m relative to 2024/25 (6%). And that the High Needs Block
will be finalised in March for deductions arising for institutions
funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency
(ESFA); 

27.        
notes that the High Needs Block is expected to overspend by
£2.4m in 2024/25, increasing the cumulative overspend to
circa £17.4m in total when prior year overspends are included
based on the national accounting override issued by the DfE and as
part of which Lewisham is local mitigation plan (since 2018)
supplemented by a further mitigation plan as part of the Delivering
Better Value initiative (Phase 3);

28.        
notes, and asks Council to note, the DSG allocation to the Early
Years Block of £51.96m;

29.        
notes, and asks Council to note that the DfE has increased hourly
funding for 3- and 4-year-olds from £7.24 to £7.52
(3.9%) and with respect to 2-year-old disadvantaged funding from
£10.64 to £11.04 (3.8%);

30.        
notes, and asks Council to note, the increased hourly funding for
under 2-year-olds from £14.52 (introduced and part funded in
September 2024) to £15.06 (3.7%); 

31.        
notes, and asks Council to note, the increased hourly rate for
2-year-old working parent entitlement from £10.64 to
£11.04 per hour (3.8%);

32.        
notes that Early Years Block also includes small levels of targeted
funding to support Early Years (EY) pupil premium, disability
access funding total increase of circa £0.2m;

33.        
notes that the maintained nursery supplementary funding allocation
for 2025/26 is subject to change but is expected to increase by
circa £63k, subject to movement in pupil numbers;

34.        
notes that funding related to Teachers Pay within EY has been
streamlined into the EY National Funding Formula, and forms the
main increases in the hourly rates;
 

35.        
notes, and asks Council to note, that the pupil premium will
continue in 2025/26 (no details have been provided on the value of
this as yet, this is expected to be confirmed in late summer
2025);

36.        
notes that the DfE has advised a new grant will be provided to
support Schools for the changes to the employers National Insurance
Contributions, however no details have been provided as yet;

37.        
notes that the Secretary of State has advised policy changes
relating to funded Breakfast clubs, however no details have been
provided as yet.

38.        
notes, and asks Council to note, the consultation report on
proposed service charge increases to tenants and leaseholders in
the Brockley area, presented to tenants and leaseholders on 30
October 2024, as attached at Appendix X2;

39.        
notes, and asks Council to note, the consultation report on
proposed service charge increases to tenants presented to the
remaining tenants on 29 October 2024 as attached at Appendix X3.
Leaseholders were asked for their views at the Leasehold Forum on
16 January 2025.

40.        
agrees, and asks Council to agree, to set an increase in dwelling
rents of 2.7% (an average of £3.26 per week) – as per
Government’s formula rent increases to be applied to rents
for 2025/26 and as outlined in Section 9 of this report;

41.        
agrees, and asks Council to agree, to set an increase in the
hostels’ accommodation charge by 2.7% (or £1.07 per
week), in accordance with Government’s direction for formula
rent increases to be applied to rents for 2025/26;

42.        
approves, and asks Council to approve, the following average weekly
increases/decreases for dwellings for:

42.1      
service charges to Private Finance Initiative (PFI) managed
dwellings (Brockley) to ensure full cost
recovery and 3.7% inflationary uplift for 2025/26:
·        
caretaking    
                       
3.7%
             
(£0.18)
·        
grounds    
                          
3.7%              
(£0.12)
·        
communal lighting
             
3.7%
             
(£0.08)
·        
bulk waste
collection         
3.7%
             
(£0.05)
·        
window
cleaning                
3.7%
             
(£0.00)
·        
tenants’ levy
                       
0.00%            
(£0.00)

42.2      
service charges to Council managed dwellings to ensure full cost
recovery and 2.7% inflationary uplift for 2025/26:
·        
caretaking
               
           
-8.99%
         
-(£0.70)
·        
grounds    
                          
9.40%
           
(£0.25)
·        
window
cleaning                
2.70%
           
(£0.00)
·        
communal lighting
             
100%
            
(£6.00)
·        
block pest
control               
2.7%              
(£1.28)
·        
waste
collection                  
2.70%
           
(£0.08)
·        
heating & hot
water            
7.70%            
(£1.23)
·        
tenants’
levy                        
0.00%
           
(£0.00)
·        
bulk waste
disposal           
17.00%
        
(£0.18)
·        
sheltered
housing              
2.50%
           
(£0.46)

43.        
approves, and asks Council to approve, the following average weekly
percentage changes for hostels and shared temporary units
for:
·        
service charges (hostels) – caretaking etc.; 2.70% or
£1.67pw energy cost increases for heat, light & power;
10.0% or £0.80pw;
·        
water charges increase; 2.70% or £0.02pw;

44.        
approves, and asks Council to approve, an increase in garage rents
by 2.70% (£0.55 per week) for Brockley PFI and Council
residents as outlined in Appendix X4;

45.        
notes, and asks Council to note, that the budgeted expenditure for
the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for 2025/26 is £251.2m,
split £113.5m revenue and £137.7m capital, which
includes the decent homes and new build programmes;

46.        
agrees the HRA Business Plan for 2025/26, as attached at Appendix
X7;

47.        
notes the 2024/25 P8 HRA Capital Programme monitoring position and
the Capital Programme potential future schemes and resources as set
out in Section 11 of this report;

48.        
agrees to write-off five cases of Former Tenants’ Arrears
totalling £66,752.22, as set out in Appendix X5;

49.        
agrees to write of 16 cases of Aerial Debt arrears totalling
£973,323.36, as set out in Appendix X5.

50.        
approve and recommend that Council approves the Treasury Management
Strategy 2025/26 including the prudential indicators and treasury
indicators, as set out in Section 10 of this report;

51.        
approve and recommend that Council approves the Annual Investment
Strategy and Creditworthiness Policy, set out in further detail at
Appendix Z2, and that it formally delegates responsibility for
managing transactions with those institutions which meet the
criteria to the Executive Director of Corporate Resources;

52.        
approve and recommend that Council approves the Investment Strategy
as set out in Section 10 of this report, along with the operational
boundary & authorised limit for the year as set out in tables
D4 and D5;

53.        
approve and recommend that Council approves the Minimum Revenue
Provision (MRP) policy as set out in Section 10 of this report;

54.        
approve and recommend that Council approves the overall credit and
counterparty risk management criteria, as set out at Appendix Z2,
the proposed countries for investment at Appendix Z5, and that it
formally delegates responsibility for managing transactions with
those institutions meeting the criteria to the Executive Director
for Corporate Resources;

55.        
agrees and recommend that Council agree to delegate to the
Executive Director of Corporate Resources the authority during
2025/26 to make amendments to borrowing and investment limits
provided they are consistent with the strategy and there is no
change to the Council’s authorised limit for borrowing;

56.        
notes the 2024/25 capital programme position and agrees, and
recommends that Council agree, the reprofiled 2024/25 Capital
Programme of £177.2m as set out in Section 11 of the
report;

57.        
recommends that Council approve the 2025/26 to 2028/29 Capital
Programme of £421.4m as set out in Section 11 of this
report;

58.        
agrees and recommends that Council agrees the Capital Strategy set
out in Appendix W1;

59.        
agrees and recommends that Council agree to delegate to the
Executive Director for Corporate Resources authority to amend the
scheme mix within the Capital programme to respond to the risks as
set out as long as this is done within the total programme
parameters approved and that regular updates on the capital
programme, reflecting any changes, are regularly reported back to
Mayor & Cabinet;

60.        
agrees the Council’s Climate Budget 2025/26 – 2027/28
as set out in Section 12 and Appendix V1.