Agenda and minutes

Members are asked to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary or Affected Interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an Affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

To consider and approve the minutes of the meeting of the Executive held on 23 January 2024.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Executive on 23 January 2024 together with the accompanying decision records be confirmed as a correct record.

There were no Urgent Items of Business.

The Executive considered the following items.  The decisions are recorded in the decision sheets attached to these minutes and summarised below:

RECOMMENDED to Council:

a) General Fund Capital Programme of £13.016m for 2024/25 in respect of

those schemes listed in Annexes A – D, of which £8.462m be funded from

Council resources.

b) Approves the inclusion of £4.554m of expenditure to be externally funded

(including £0.380m of S106 funding) as outlined in paragraph 5.20.

c) That those schemes that attract external grant funding are included within

the Capital Programme at the level of funding received.

d) Agrees that capital schemes that require external funding can only

proceed once the Council has received confirmation that the grant will be

awarded.

e) The inclusion of an additional budget of £1m for Invest to Save schemes.

RECOMMENDED that the Executive, in recommending to Council a budget and Council Tax level for 2024/25:

 i.                  Agrees the provision for inflation of £4.507m (section8.2);

ii.         Approves a further council tax discount funded by Bracknell Forest Council in 2024/25 of £75 for working age households receiving council tax support as summarised in paragraph 8.3.1a);

iii.         Confirms its support for the draft budget proposals as set out in the report presented to the Executive’s meeting in December 2023, subject to the revisions in section 8.3.1b) to 8.3.1k) and those decisions to be taken elsewhere on this agenda on the capital programme;

iv.         Agrees the additional budget proposals as set out in Annexe A and Annexe D and in sections 6.2 (Revenue Support Grant), 6.3 (specific grants), 6.4 (business rates), 7.3 (collection fund) , 8.2 (inflation) and 8.3 (updated pressures & savings);

v.         Agrees that the additional grant funding received in the Final Local Government Finance Settlement announced on 5 February 2024 be allocated to social care services (£0.754m in Social Care Grant) and to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities services (£0.268m in Funding Guarantee and £0.010m in Services Grant) with no net budget impact;

vi.         Agrees that the Executive Member for Children, Young People and Learning approves the detailed budget allocations for High Needs pupils and Early Years provisions, up to the estimated level of available resources;

vii.         Includes a general contingency totalling £4.000m (section 10.7) use of which is to be authorised by the Chief Executive in consultation with the Executive Director: Resources in accordance with the delegations included in the Council’s constitution;

viii.         Approves the proposed Net Revenue Budget including the contribution of £1.509m from the Future Funding Reserve (including £0.038m additional interest from the use of balances) to support revenue expenditure, as set out in Annexe G;

ix.         Recommends a 4.99% increase in the Council Tax for the Council’s services and that the Council Tax requirement, excluding Parish and Town Council precepts, be set as £80.312m;

x.         Recommends that the Council Tax for the Council’s services and that each Valuation Band is set as follows:

xi.         Recommends that the Council approves the following indicators, limits, strategies and policies included in Annexe E:

·     The Prudential Indicatorsand Limitsfor 2024/25to 2026/27contained within AnnexeE(i);

·     The Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) Policy contained within Annexe E(ii);

·     The Treasury Management Strategy Statement, and the Treasury Prudential Indicators contained in AnnexeE(iii);

·     The Authorised Limit Prudential Indicator in AnnexeE(iii);

·     The Investment Strategy 2024/25 to 2026/27 and Treasury Management Limits on Activity contained in AnnexeE(iv).

xii.         Recommends to Council that the following additional Council Tax premiums be applied from 1 April 2025:

•    A 100% premium for properties which have been empty and unfurnished for longer than one year (rather than 2 years as currently) and;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.

RECOMMENDED to Council that:

       i.         the establishment of a fully constituted Joint Committee (to be known as the Berkshire Prosperity Board) from May 2024 to deliver a Berkshire-wide vision for inclusive green and sustainable economic prosperity is approved.

     ii.         the proposed constitution for the Joint Committee as set out in Appendix A - Functions and Procedure Rules for a Joint Committee, Appendix B - Responsibilities of the accountable body and Appendix C - Governance structure is recommended to Council for approval subject to the Monitoring Officer being authorised to make minor amendments to the Functions & Procedure Rules in conjunction with the participating authorities.

    iii.         the Chief Executive be delegated to reach a legally binding agreement between the member Authorities setting out the supporting arrangements and responsibilities between the Authorities, particularly that between the Lead Authority, known as the Accountable Body and the other member Authorities and go through the relevant democratic process if required.

RESOLVED that:

       i.         the Executive approve the draft strategy and agree that the final consultation plan will be agreed with Executive Member for Children, Young

People and Learning.

     ii.         the Executive to note the invitation to Members to join a dedicated session

to provide feedback on the draft strategy.

    iii.         the Executive to note the intention to bring back a final strategy for Executive to approve following the consultation which will also include a detailed action plan.

RESOLVED that

       i.         the Executive approves this Strategic Procurement Plan to tender the

appointment of a Design & Construction Multi-Disciplinary Consultancy Services Contract.

     ii.         Approval of this Strategic Procurement Plan authorises:

(i) a proposed contractual term for a duration of up to ten years with an initial period of five years and further 3 + 2 years based on key performance indicators of optional extensions with a contract value of £12m for 10-year contract.

(ii) Design & Construction Multi-Disciplinary Consultancy Services Contract to be procured from a single provider.

    iii.         the Executive delegate authority to the Executive Director, Delivery and the Executive Member for Finance and Business Change to award the contract to the provider meeting the requirements of this contract.