Agenda and minutes

            Apologies for inability to attend were reported from Councillors Long and Smyth.

            The Director of Corporate Services submitted the undernoted report which had been prepared in connection with the estimated expenditure of the Council for the year 2008/2009:

“Purpose

      The purpose of this report is to request the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee to fix the cash limits of the Council’s various committees for 2008/09, to approve the estimates for the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee for 2008/09 and agree to fix the District Rate at its meeting on 25 January 2008.

Relevant Background Information

      Section 53(2) of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 and Regulation 2 of the Local Government Annual Budget (SR & O 1973 No 130) require that this Council:

(a)  consider and approve estimates for the year 2008/2009,

(b)authorise the expenditure included in those estimates, and,

(c)  fix the amount estimated to be raised by means of a District Rate.

      The Council is also required to fix this District Rate not later than 15 February 2008.

      The key purposes of agreeing the revenue estimates are as follows:

·         To establish what the Council can afford to spend in 2008/09.

·         To agree the cash limit for each of the Council’s committees.

·         To agree the district rate for 2008/09.

·         To ensure that the Council’s money is aligned to deliver the priorities set by Members.

      There has been a growing recognition by Members and officers of the need for the Council to consider at the same time what we can afford to spend and how the money should be best allocated to deliver priorities. The Council has started to tackle the barriers which make this integration difficult and put in place mechanisms which will make this easier in the future. This year there has been a concentrated effort to engage Members at an early stage in discussions concerning both financial and business planning. For example, the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee and Chief Officers have held two sets of planning away days in August and November this year and another one is due in March. At the same time officers have been working closely with the Institute of Revenue, Rating and Valuation (IRRV) and the Land and Property Services Agency (LPSA) to remove some of the barriers which make financial planning difficult.

      It is in this context that this report recommends a district rate increase of 5.81% for 2008/09. The table below shows the impact of this recommended increase on average valued property types.

      There have been a number of key internal and external drivers for this year’s estimates and these are discussed below.

Regional Rate

      From the graph below it can be seen that over the past ten years the Council has consistently set a lower rate increase than the regional rate. The graph also shows that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.