Agenda and minutes

Budget Council, Council - Wednesday, 8th March, 2023 6.30 pm

Venue: Council Chamber, Town Hall, Katharine Street, Croydon CR0 1NX

Contact: Marianna Ritchie, Democratic Services  Email: marianna.ritchie@croydon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

34/21

Disclosure of Interests

Members are invited to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) they may have in relation to any item(s) of business on today’s agenda.

Minutes:

There were none.

 

35/21

Urgent Business (If any)

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

36/21

Announcements

To receive Announcements, if any, from the Chair, the Elected Mayor, and Chief Executive (Head of Paid Service & Returning Officer).

Minutes:

Executive Mayor, Jason Perry, wished all a Happy International Women’s Day, and congratulated Councillor Rowenna Davis on the recent birth of her baby. The Chair echoed the well wishes of the Mayor and entire Council.

37/21

Council Tax and Budget 2023-24 pdf icon PDF 107 KB

The meeting is being called as part of the 2023/24 budget setting process.  If this Council meeting is required, agenda and supplementary papers for the ‘Council Tax and Budget 2023/24’ item will be issued following the 1 March 2023 Council meeting.

 

Should a Budget be agreed at the meeting on Wednesday 1 March there will be no need for this meeting, and the meeting will be cancelled.

 

IMPORTANT UPDATE (ADDED AFTER AGENDA PUBLICATION):

 

At Council on the 1st March 2023, the executive’s proposed budget was not agreed. This 8th March Council meeting will take place to consider the executive response.

 

Papers for this item will be published as supplementary papers to this agenda.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

It was agreed that the order of the meeting would include fifteen minutes of questions to the Executive Mayor followed by fifteen minutes of questions to the Cabinet Member for Finance.

 

In the first round of questioning the Mayor responded that:

 

·       The proposed increase in Council Tax was not to make savings for the future but to cut expenses as part of a package of cost-cutting measures, which would make income available to the council for future years;

·       Alternative budget proposals had not come forward from the Labour group;

·       The Mayor was keen for members to approach the Executive to make recommendations about how the Hardship Fund should be accessed to ensure those with differing accessibility requirements and the digitally excluded would be able to access support;

·       The council would ensure that core services and functions were provided and that the Executive was ensuring the budget provided improvement to those services;

·       There were around forty different projects planned for the Transformation Programme for which £10m was allocated, all with differing phases and impacts; and,

·       Scrutiny had assessed that the budget was prudent, safe and deliverable;

 

During the fifteen minutes of questions to the Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Jason Cummings responded that:

 

·       £200m worth of capital receipts were included in the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS);

·       The council did not owe any money to Central Government for covid-related costs;

·       There were various pots of money which could be used at the discretion of the council to provide support to residents who were classed as having ‘no recourse to public funds’, who were noted as four times more likely to fall behind on bills with Council Tax being the most common bill of this nature;

 

Council then debated the amendment put forward by the Green group. Councillor Ria Patel, speaking on behalf of the amendment, explained that the improvements contained in the proposed £1m allocation of money to improving active travel infrastructure in the borough was needed to make the borough safer and more accessible, and satisfied the Mayor’s need to include environmental improvements in the budget.

 

Councillor Esther Sutton seconded the motion and reserved her right of reply.

 

Councillor Chris Clark explained that the issue of active travel had been addressed in the Mayor’s Business Plan, and that he support the amendment enthusiastically.

Councillor Jason Cummings explained that, even if the Conservative group voted in favour of the amendment the Green group had made it clear that they did not support the Executive’s budget proposals, and so they could not support the amendment, even though they were happy to work collaboratively on these issues going forwards.

 

Councillor Esther Sutton expressed that they welcomed the support from the Labour group but that it was a shame the Executive would not support the proposals.

 

Council then voted on the amendment and:

 

RESOLVED, with 35 votes in favour and 34 votes against and one abstention, not to amend the budget proposals in accordance with that put forward by the Green group.

 

Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37/21