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Special Meeting: Annual Budget and Council Tax Setting, Council - Thursday, 27th February, 2025 7.30 pm

February 27, 2025 View on council website
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Summary

The Council of Waltham Forest Council is scheduled to hold a meeting on Thursday 27 February 2025. It includes the proposed budget for 2025/26, the setting of council tax for 2025/26, the Treasury Management Strategy for 2025/26 and pay policy for council staff. It also includes the appointment of a new representative to the Health and Wellbeing Board. The minutes of the previous meeting of the council, which took place on 12 December 2024, are to be formally approved1.

Budget

The council’s proposed budget for 2025/26 totals £523.858 million[^3]. It includes a council tax increase of 4.99% which includes a 2% adult social care precept. £9.134 million of cuts to services are included in the proposed budget, which the document says are needed to mitigate a projected budget gap. It anticipates that the proposed budget will result in a Band D council tax of £1,787.27. The Mayor of London has proposed an increase of £18.98 to the Greater London Authority precept, which would bring the total Band D council tax to £2,277.65. The report pack includes an overview of recent economic changes and how they affect the council. It also includes a breakdown of the financial performance of each of the council departments. The report pack refers to “Mission Waltham Forest”, the council's plan to address inequality in the borough. It says:

Amid a national housing crisis, we’ve built on our proud record of delivering affordable homes and regeneration. This includes recent agreement to develop 387 affordable homes around Lea Bridge Station and completion of 435 new homes at Fellowship Square, Coronation Square and the Families and Homes Hub, including 267 affordable homes.

Council Tax Support Scheme

The proposed budget includes funding of £0.75 million for a Discretionary Hardship Fund. This is to support a new banded Council Tax Support scheme, which the council agreed at its meeting on the 12 December 2024.

Housing Benefit

The report pack proposes that the council should continue to exempt war widows and war widowers from having to pay council tax on their homes.

Treasury Management

The council’s proposed Treasury Management Strategy for 2025/26 is included in the report pack. The treasury management strategy is about how the council borrows money to fund capital projects like new schools or leisure centres. It also includes how it invests the money it holds on behalf of residents. It notes that, as at 31 December 2024, the council has £114 million in temporary borrowing. It also notes that, on 20 December 2024, the council borrowed £30 million from the Public Works Loan Board at rates of 4.52% and 4.57%. The treasury management strategy lists the organisations from which the council borrows money2, the maximum amount it will borrow from each of them, and the types of investment it is permitted to make. The treasury management strategy also includes economic forecasts, and says:

The risks to our forecasts are to the upsides.

Pay Policy Statement

The report pack includes the council’s pay policy statement for 2025/26. It sets out the council’s approach to paying staff, and lists all of the salaries for council staff3. This year’s statement does not include performance related pay for any staff. It says that this is because:

The organisation is presently undertaking a holistic review of its current performance appraisal process.

The pay policy statement also describes the council’s commitments on equalities. It includes statements on the Gender Pay Gap and the Ethnicity Pay Gap.

Political Balance on Committees

Following the resignation of Councillor Tom Connor from the Labour Group, the report pack says that a review of the political balance on council committees is required. The document says this will affect the Licensing (General) Committee. It says:

For ordinary committees, the change required affects only the Licensing (General) Committee, whereby the Labour Group lose one seat and the ungrouped members are entitled to one seat.

The document also says that the Coordinating Scrutiny Committee, Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee, Budget Scrutiny Committee, Children and Families Scrutiny Committee, and Climate Scrutiny Committee are unaffected, but that Labour will gain one seat, the Conservative group will lose three seats and the ungrouped members will get one seat each on the other Scrutiny committees.

Draft Meetings Programme

A draft programme of meetings for 2025/26 is to be decided. The report pack includes a list of all the meetings that are scheduled to be held during the year, with their proposed dates4.

Appointments

Paul Calaminus, who will replace Philomena Arthur as the NELFT5 representative, is scheduled to be appointed to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

  1. The previous meeting decided that the Council should assess the evidence for on-street parking controls before deciding whether to implement them. This had been the subject of a motion by the Conservative Group. They had initially proposed that the Council should not implement the controls. This was amended by the Labour group to instead commit to assessing the evidence. The Conservatives then tried unsuccessfully to amend that proposal to explicitly say that the evidence might lead to the controls not being implemented. The final motion was passed by the Labour group and opposed by the Conservative group. ↩

  2. The report lists several potential sources of funding for the council including banks, institutional investors, the UK Municipal Bonds Agency, and bond issuance. ↩

  3. The document lists the salary for the role of Chief Executive as £225,147. The document also lists the lowest paid council workers as being on Spinal Point 2. They are paid £27,345 per annum. Because all council workers must earn the London Living Wage, which is £13.85 per hour, those workers on the lowest pay point also receive a salary supplement. ↩

  4. The Draft Meetings Programme proposes that there will be 4 ordinary council meetings. It also proposes that there will be 11 Cabinet meetings, 5 Audit and Governance Committee meetings, 12 Planning Committee meetings, 6 Co-ordinating Scrutiny Committee Meetings, 6 Whipps Cross JHOSC meetings and 4 INEL JHOSC meetings. The report pack also sets out proposed dates for a range of other meetings throughout the year. ↩

  5. NELFT is the North East London NHS Foundation Trust. It is responsible for the provision of Mental Health services to residents of Waltham Forest. ↩

Attendees

Documents