Agenda item

  A report by the Deputy Chief Executive Corporate Development (S151)

The Strategic Finance Manager supported by the Head of Finance presented the report advising that the Boston Town Area Committee (BTAC) was asked to make a recommendation to Cabinet and Council on the precept and Band D Council Tax levy for properties in the BTAC area for the 2024/25 financial year.  This report details the current position and the proposed levy for the Council to approve for 2024/25.

Members were reminded of the context in which this budget has been set. It was at a time of continuing change and significant financial challenge for local government. Those included the ongoing reductions in grant support from the government, the impact of Welfare reform, changes to the mechanism upon which central government support is allocated, and the proposed future moves to full localisation of the business rates regime.

BTAC members have in recent years increased the Council Tax and precept to help make the town a better place, and initiatives have been progressed to fund public conveniences, central park spend, footway lights and open spaces, events and town centre operatives.

The proposed budget included an inflationary increase this year, which included an unallocated sum to enable members to support further measures to improve the town.

The level of Council Tax was a key factor for the Committee when considering its future aspirations.

The impact on Council Taxpayers of the proposed 1.24% increase would be that BTAC’s Band D annual charge would go up by £0.99p, or 2 pence per week. The impact for all bands is shown in the table below, almost 70% of BTAC households are in bands A and B, meaning that their weekly increase, before taking Council Tax Support into account, would be approximately 1 penny in each case.

Questioning and commenting followed which included:

Responding to questions the Strategic Finance Manager advised that:-

• There had been an over spend for footway lighting for 23/24 due to ongoing prices rises in power supplies, hence the significant increase within the budget. The Council might wish to look at reducing efficiencies in that area by looking at an ‘invest to save’ option for LED lighting, with only a third of the current footway lighting being LED lighting, the remaining two thirds being standard lighting. Members and the Chairman supported such an investigation.
• BTAC no longer funded a CCTV Operative following its’ initial decision to support an operative for a year. No additional support had been taken forward.
• The Section 151 Officer recommended that a minimum of £70k be kept in the reserves, the additional £48k identified was on top of the £70k.
• The governed basic amount of increase was 1.24%, with the BTAC element being 3% or £5 whichever was the greater.  Should the BTAC levy increase the Council levy would decrease. Members were advised that The RBAtook into account the total of the council tax precepts plus Boston Town Area Committee, the table below demonstrated that the annual increase was within the 3% threshold when considering the RBA.

• In response to a question querying the premiums in respect of re banding, due to a decrease in the tax base, members were advised that the query would be passed to the Revenues and Benefits team to source a full breakdown as to why the base had moved.
• Third party payments had increased due to increases in maintenance costs – bulk staffing costs year on year?

Overall members approved the need for the increase as proposed, acknowledging the reasons for the increase and further agreed the request for the ‘invest to save’ review in respect of Footway Lighting.  An additional request agreed the need for a report at the subsequent meeting identifying the costs of BTAC Assets.

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RESOLVED:

That BTAC recommends to Cabinet and Council the level of its Special Expense precept for 2023/24 at £768,772 and the Council Tax charge of £80.37 at Band D.