Test Valley Borough Council Cabinet Meeting

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor N Adams-King.

Mr Burley had registered to speak in accordance with the Council’s Public Participation Scheme under item 8 – Corporate Financial Monitoring.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no urgent items.

The minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 10 July 2024 were proposed by Councillor P North and seconded by Councillor Flood.

Resolved:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 July 2024 be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

Consideration was given to the report of the Finance and Resources Portfolio Holder which presented a draft Council Tax Support Scheme 2025/26 for the purposes of carrying out a public consultation.

The Council was required to have a Council Tax Support Scheme to assist residents with their liability to pay Council Tax.

An Overview and Scrutiny Member Panel had been established to review options for the Scheme and contribute to the development of a new simplified draft scheme. Cabinet thanked the Member Panel for their contribution to the development of the scheme and were supportive of the recommendations they had made.

Having considered the options and for the reasons set out in the report, the recommendation was proposed by Councillor Flood, seconded by Councillor P North and Cabinet agreed to the following:

Resolved

That the draft Council Tax Support scheme, as shown in Annex 2 to the report, be approved for public consultation.

Cabinet considered recommendations from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee following a Member Panel who had reviewed options for the Council Tax Support Scheme for 2025/26.

The Overview and Scrutiny Member Panel had reviewed the current scheme and recommended principles which had been fed into the development of a proposed scheme for 2025/26.

Cabinet noted that the work of the Panel and their recommendations to Cabinet were an excellent example of how the work of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee contributes to policy development and thanked the members of the panel for their work in reviewing the scheme.

The recommendations from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee would be included in consideration of the next agenda item, Council Tax Support Scheme 2025/26.

In accordance with the Council’s Public Participation Scheme, Mr Burley made a statement in respect of Corporate Financial Monitoring

Consideration was given to a report of the Finance and Resources Portfolio Holder which reviewed the Council’s revenue spending for the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial year and provided a Treasury Management update.

The report examined the main differences between the original estimate and actual spend to 30 June 2024, providing an explanation for significant variances.

Overall, the net expenditure to 30 June 2024 was £94,000 higher than budgeted. The adverse variance comprised lower income and additional costs of £185,000 due to service-related activities and partially offset by £91,000 more income from the Council’s investing and borrowing activities.

Having considered the options and for the reasons set out in the report, the recommendations were proposed by Councillor Flood, seconded by Councillor P North and Cabinet agreed to the following:

Resolved

1.  That the financial position for each Service and the key revenue areas contained in the Annex to the report be noted.

2.  That the Treasury Management update in paragraph 4 of the report be noted.

Recommended to Council

3.  That the ‘Upper limit for total principal sums invested for over 364 days’ be updated as detailed in paragraph 4.11 of the report.