Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report from Head of Finance.

The Officer’s report recommended changes to the Constitution to give effect to the amendments to the Council’s budget process agreed by the Executive Councillor for Finance, Resources and Transformation on 11 July 2022 following Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee.

The Committee and Independent person (via written statement) made the following comments in response to the report:

i.                Welcomed cross-party work and agreement on the budget process.

ii.               Welcomed alignment of the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account processes. Hoped this could occur as quickly as possible, but understood the need for caution to ensure processes worked.

The Head of Finance said the following in response to Members’ questions:

i.                Alignment of the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account would be addressed in future. This was not possible in 2022 due to the complexity of the budget process. The situation would be reviewed in 2022-2023 with the intention of implementing in 2024-2025.

ii.               Agreed that recommendation (iii) was not ideal as it requested an adjournment in the 23 February 2023 Council meeting. This issue would be reviewed in the next municipal year.

iii.             City Council budget processes had been benchmarked against other local authorities and our virement processes were similar to theirs. The City Council was more conservative in a way as its threshold of recommending limits of £250,000 be reviewed by (full) Council were as high as £1m in other organisations.

iv.             There was an opportunity to scrutinise virements through Strategy & Resources Scrutiny Committee and Out of Cycle Decisions outside of (full) Council meetings. Officers did not recommend lowering the virement approval thresholds so lower figures eg £100,000 required decisions by councillors.

Councillors requested a change to the recommendations. Councillors Bick and Thornburrow proposed and Councilor McPherson seconded splitting former (iii) into [new] (iii) and [new] (iv) to make [old] (iv) the [new] (v).

   iii.          Agree that Council meets on 23 February 2023 to consider the Budget Setting Report and associated financial recommendations only (ie a budget meeting), with the remainder of the Council Agenda adjourned until the following Thursday 2 March 2023 (ie the same arrangement as 2022). To note that this arrangement may not be the best way on-going and Members will be consulted on different options for when Council meetings are scheduled at this time of the municipal year following a review of the above changes to the budget process.

  iv.          Note that this arrangement may not be the best way on-going and Members will be consulted on different options for when Council meetings are scheduled at this time of the municipal year following a review of the above changes to the budget process.

    v.          Agree the changes to Virements and carry forwards as described in 3.4 and Appendix B of the Officer’s report.

The Chair decided that the recommendations highlighted in the Officer’s report should be voted on and recorded separately:

Resolved (by 5 votes to 0 (and 1 abstention) – unanimous of those able to vote) to recommend to Council:

      i.          Agree the changes to Council Procedure Rules and Budget Framework rules as set out in the Appendix A of the Officer’s report and that the arrangements are reviewed in good time to inform an agreed approach for the following budget cycle.

     ii.          Note the additions and changes to meetings December 2022-February 2023 as a consequence of these changes.

Resolved (by 4 votes to 0 (and 2 abstentions)) to:

   iii.          Agree that Council meets on 23 February 2023 to consider the Budget Setting Report and associated financial recommendations only (ie a budget meeting), with the remainder of the Council Agenda adjourned until the following Thursday 2 March 2023 (ie the same arrangement as 2022).

Resolved (by 5 votes to 0 (and 1 abstention) – unanimous of those able to vote) to:

   iv.          Note that this arrangement may not be the best way on-going and Members will be consulted on different options for when Council meetings are scheduled at this time of the municipal year following a review of the above changes to the budget process.

Resolved (by 4 votes to 0 (and 2 abstentions)) to:

    v.          Agree the changes to Virements and carry forwards as described in 3.4 and Appendix B of the Officer’s report.