Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies.

Apologies were received from Councillor M Khan.

Councillors to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests, other registerable interests, or non-registerable interests (including other pecuniary interests) they may have in the business to be transacted, and officers to declare any interests they may have in any contract to be considered.

There were no disclosures of interest.

The Committee will receive a presentation from the Finance Team explaining the 2025/26 Local Government Finance Settlement and the likely impact on the Council’s Budget for 2025/26.

The Director of Finance and Resources and Assistant Director of Finance gave a presentation which outlined changes to the published draft budget following the publication of the Local Government Finance Policy Statement and Local Government Finance Settlement.

It was noted that there were a number of risks to the balanced budget position that had been reported at Cabinet on 3 December including government funding which had not yet been confirmed, a number of savings proposals being in early stages and requiring development, the potential for further evolution of in-year demand pressures and the impact of National Insurance increases. The Director of Finance and Resources advised that the publication of the policy statement on 28 November had given some further indication on how funding would be allocated but still did not provide clarity at the individual local authority level. He added that the provisional settlement had been received on 18 December but that whilst this had given more details on the allocation that Milton Keynes would receive in some cases the conditions for the funding had not yet been communicated and therefore there may need to be further amendments to the assumptions contained within the draft budget when this information was released.

The Assistant Director of Finance advised the Committee of the funding assumptions included within the draft budget including the Council Tax Base for the 2025/26 year which had been agreed by Cabinet on 5 November 2024, a 4.99% increase to Council Tax, a business rates main multiplier increase of 1.6% with the small business multiplier frozen. She outlined the breakdown of the £19.882m of ongoing service pressures, noting that a large majority (£12.851m) of the cost was due to exceptional demand in areas such as children’s services which was not expected to continue into future years at the same level.

The Committee were also informed of the £11.926m of inflation related costs which included the pay award, which it was assumed would be 3%, and increases in National Insurance and Minimum Living Wage. The Assistant Director of Finance advised that it was assumed that the Council would be compensated for the direct costs incurred due to the increase in National Insurance but that the specific allocation for Milton Keynes had not yet been confirmed and therefore could have further impacts on the current budget position.

The Assistant Director of Finance then advised the Committee of the changes to the assumptions included in the budget as a result of the publication of the provisional settlement. She advised that there had been increases in the amount of funding allocated in certain grants in comparison to previous assumptions such as the Revenue Support Grant, Social Care Grant, Childrens Social Care Prevention Grant, Homeless Prevention Grant and Local Authority Domestic Abuse Duty Grant and reductions in others such as the Service Grant, Recovery Grant and Childrens & Families Grant but that ultimately the overall change was about £1.023m more funding than the assumptions built into the draft budget.

The Committee were also advised of  ...  view the full minutes text for item BR39

To consider the contents of the draft budget 2025/26 initially noted and endorsed at Cabinet on 3 December 2024.

The Committee may need to consider excluding the public and press in accordance with Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, should it wish to discuss specific exempt proposals.

Any recommendations the Committee may formulate from this item will be included in the Committee’s report on draft budget proposals which will be presented to Cabinet and Council in February.

The Committee discussed further pressures, budget reductions and income proposals that remained to be discussed during the following two meetings of the Committee. It was noted that the meeting scheduled for the 9 January would discuss items in Childrens and Adults Services.

RESOLVED –

1.      That recommendations in relation to specific items in the 2025/26 Draft Budget be included in the Committee’s report on the draft budget proposals which will be presented to Cabinet and Council in February 2025.

2.      Committee Members to advise of any further items to be added to the agenda of the meeting scheduled for 14 January.

These documents contain the business cases which the Committee considered as exempt annexes. Following review the attached business cases were identified as containing no commercially sensitive information and have therefore been released to the public.