Agenda and draft minutes

To receive declarations of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or other registrable or non-registrable interests from Members in respect of any item to be considered at the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made by councillors regarding items on the agenda for the meeting.

The Group is asked to confirm as a true record the Minutes of the Meeting of the Group held on 22 November 2024 (attached) and to authorise the Chair to sign them.

The minutes of the Financial Policy Panel meeting held on 22 November 2024 were agreed as a true record to be signed by the Chair.

This report provides an update on the preparation of the budget for 2025/26.  The report seeks any final guidance from the group prior to the preparation of the Budget and Council Tax report for the Council on 11 February 2025.

Members discussed the following issues:

·                 The Business Rates pool and why EEBC is not included for 2025/26.

·                 The increased costs of NIC for 2025/26 and the estimated government funding support for this.

·                 The postponed Fair Funding Review.

·                 The occupancy status of some of the Council’s investment properties.

·                 The Extended Producer Responsibility funding for 2025/26 and future assumptions.

·                 Potential costs of the Local Government Reorganisation and the potential for urgent decisions.

·                 The level of Council Tax increase for 2025/26.

·                 Action 4 of the Corporate Peer Challenge Action Plan relates to training. The level of budget for Member Development has been benchmarked against other Surrey districts and it was suggested that the current budget of £3.5k be uplifted within the 2025/26 financial year by £2.5k (final figure to be agreed with the Chair and Deputy Chair of Strategy & Resources Committee) to bring in line with the average figure per Member. The Director of Corporate Services confirmed that the inflationary contingency budget could be used to increase this budget to the required level, as the budget had not been uplifted for some years. The authority to allocate contingency budgets sits with the S151 Officer as per the financial regulations.

Following consideration of the above matters and the report’s contents, the Group moved to consider the report recommendations, which were agreed as follows:

(1)            Provide the Chief Finance Officer with any further feedback needed to finalise the 2025/26 Budget and Council Tax report;

(2)            Note the provisional Local Government financial settlement for 2025/26 announced on 18 December;

(3)            Support that any surplus/deficit on 2024/5 business rates income, and any change in projected business rates income for 2025/26, will be offset by a transfer to or from the Collection Fund Equalisation Reserve, as set-out in Section 4;

(4)            Support a recommendation to Council of a council tax increase of 2.98% (£6.75 per annum for a Band D equivalent property) for 2025/26.

This report outlines the treasury management strategy for 2025/26, which includes prudential indicators for 2025/26 to 2027/28, the minimum revenue provision (MRP) policy, and the investment and borrowing strategy. It is a legislative requirement that these items be approved by Full Council.

Members discussed the following issues:

·                 The approved countries for investment on the list in 5.17 of the Treasury Management Strategy and proposed that Abu Dhabi (UAE) and Qatar be removed from the list to go to Full Council. USA was discussed and agreed it should remain for this year but requested that the Finance team provide advice on the potential impact of removing the USA from the list of approved countries for investment, for review in advance of the 2026/27 financial year and an assessment, from the Council’s Treasury advisors, on whether there are any bitcoin investment opportunities that might fit within the Council’s agreed risk profile for investments.

·                 It was highlighted that recommendation 2 should say section 5.17 and not section 7 which was included in the report. 

Following consideration of the report’s contents, the Group moved to consider the report recommendations, which were agreed as follows:

(1)            Recommend to Full Council that the treasury management strategy, which includes the following, be approved:

1.1     The treasury management strategy and the treasury prudential indicators contained therein;

1.2     The capital prudential indicators and limits;

1.3     The borrowing strategy contained within the treasury management statement;

1.4     The annual investment strategy;

1.5     The minimum revenue provision policy statement;

1.6     The treasury management practices.

(2)            Advise whether any countries should be considered for removal from the list of approved investable countries at section 5.17 of the treasury management strategy.