Test Valley Borough Council Cabinet Meeting

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Johnston and Phil North.

Councillor D Drew arrived at 5:46pm, he did not participate in decision making.

There was no public participation.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no urgent items.

The minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 20 December 2023 were proposed by Councillor Adams-King and seconded by Councillor Flood.

Resolved:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 20 December 2023 be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

There were no recommendations to consider from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Consideration was given to a report of the Finance and Resources Portfolio Holder which set out options available to the Council for the disposal of two pieces of land that the Head of Property and Asset Management considered to be surplus to requirements.

It was recommended that funding be approved to enable disposal options to be compiled for Bailiff’s Bottom, Andover and Bunny Lane, Romsey. Both potential disposals would contribute positively towards the Councils financial position, housing and improve Gypsy and Traveller site provision.

Having considered the options and for the reasons set out in the report, the

recommendations were proposed by Councillor Flood, seconded by Councillor Adams-King and Cabinet agreed to the following:

Resolved:

1.  To the extent that such actions fall outside existing delegations, that the Head of Property and Asset Management in consultation with the Finance and Resources Portfolio Holder, the Head of Legal and Democratic Services and the Head of Finance and Revenues be authorised to appoint professional advisors to assist in establishing options for the disposal of the assets set out in this report.

2.  That the funding, set out in paragraph 7.1 of the report, for the professional fees required to finalise disposal options be approved, and be financed from the Regeneration Reserve.

Consideration was given to a report of the Finance and Resources Portfolio Holder which reviewed the Council’s revenue spending for the three quarters to the end of December of the 2023/24 financial year.

Overall, net expenditure to 31 December 2023 was £1.416M lower than budgeted for the stage of the year. The favourable variance comprised additional income and savings of £936,000 due to service related activities and £480,000 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 Adams-King 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.

Consideration was given to a report of the Finance and Resources Portfolio Holder which provided an update on changes to the 2024/25 budget forecast since the Medium Term Financial Strategy was presented in October 2023.

The report set out the impact of the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, saving options, income generation proposals and revenue pressures. The report also provided an updated Medium Term Financial Forecast covering 2024/25 to 2026/27.

Assuming no changes to the figures presented in the report, the Council was in a position to set a balanced budget for 2024/25. The final budget report would be presented to Cabinet at its meeting on 28 February 2024.

Having considered the options and for the reasons set out in the report, the

recommendations were proposed by Councillor Flood, seconded by Councillor Adams-King and Cabinet agreed to the following:

Resolved:

1.  That the savings options, income generation proposals and budget pressures, shown in Annexes 1 and 2 to the report, be noted.

2.  That the Medium Term Financial Forecast, shown in Annex 3 to the report, be noted.

The recommendation for exclusion of the public was proposed by Councillor Adams-King and seconded by Councillor Flood.

Resolved:

That, pursuant to Regulation 4 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012, the public be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of the following report on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the following Paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, indicated below. The public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information for the reason given below:

Contractual Matters  Paragraph 3

It is considered that this report contains exempt information within the meaning of paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended because the information relates to the financial or business affairs of any person (including the authority holding that information.  It is further considered that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information as it relates to commercially confidential information.