Hampshire County Council Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Authority (Shadow Authority) Meeting

Apologies were received from Councillor Geoff Hockley and Councillor Rhydian Vaughan.

Members were mindful of their duty to disclose at the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest they had in any matter on the agenda for the meeting, where that interest was not already entered in the Authority's register of interests, and their ability to disclose any other personal interests in any such matter that they might have wished to disclose.

The minutes of the last meeting were reviewed and agreed.

There were no deputations for the meeting.

There were no Chairman’s announcements.

There were no recent Member developments.

The Shadow Authority considered  a report from the Treasurer (item 7 in the minute book), which provided an update to members of the current financial position for the 2020/21 Hampshire FRA Revenue Budget and an update on the 2021/22 Hampshire and Isle of Wight FRA budget setting process.

Covid funding was highlighted in paragraph 7 of the report, including £670 million additional grant to help local authorities support the more than 4 million households that are least able to afford council tax payments.

The Spending Review was announced in November, but there was no detailed information on the likely grant settlement for Fire Authorities and little was known about the impact of Covid-19 on the budget going forward, but it was assumed that there would be a reduction in help from 2022/23 onwards.

The provisional local government finance settlement will not be available until Christmas and so more would be known then an enable more precise planning.

Councillor Dave Stewart thanked the Treasurer for the planned investment in the Isle of Wight.

RESOLVED

a) The Growth Pressures as set out in Appendix A were approved by the Shadow Authority for inclusion in the 2021/22 budget.

b) If necessary, the use of reserves to balance the 2021/22 budget was approved by the Shadow Authority.

c) The Shadow Authority noted that options for efficiencies and savings would be developed once the budget had been set in February 2021.

d) The mid-year review of treasury management activities was approved by the Shadow Authority

The exempt minutes were approved as part of item 3 on the agenda, and so the meeting did not move into exempt session.

The exempt minutes from the 22 September 2020 meeting were approved.