The Council met to consider and set the 2024/25 budget, Council Tax resolution for 2024/25 and Collection Fund budget for 2024/25.  In doing so, the proceedings of the Art Galleries Committee on 14 February 2024, which provided details of the Art Galleries budget for 2024/25 were submitted for approval. In addition, the part proceedings of the Executive on 14 February 2024 were submitted for approval, which contained details on the following:

 

·       Revenue Budget Monitoring Update to the end of December 2023

•       Capital Programme Budget Monitoring 2023/24

•       Medium Term Financial Strategy and 2024/25 Revenue Budget

•       Corporate Core Budget 2024/25

•       Children and Education Services Budget 2024/25

•       Public Health Budget 2024-27

•       Adult Social Care Budget 2024/27

•       Neighbourhoods Directorate Budget 2024/25

•       Housing Revenue Account 2024/25 to 2026/27

•       Growth and Development Directorate Budget 2024/25

•       Dedicated Schools Grant 2024/25

•       Capital Strategy and Budget 2023/24 to 2026/27

•       Treasury Management Strategy Statement 2024/25, including Borrowing Limits and Annual Investment Strategy

•       Budget consultation results 2024/25

•       Budget Equality and Poverty Impact Assessments

 

The Council also considered the following reports:-

 

•   Details of proposed budget amendment;

•   The Council Tax Resolution 2024/25.

 

In addition, the Council received the minutes of the Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee on 26 February 2024, that considered the Budget Report 2024-2025.

 

The Lord Mayor provided Council with an explanation of the process to be followed at the meeting to consider and vote on the two amendments received and to then consider the documents submitted and in doing so, to set the Council’s budget for 2024/25 by a named electronic vote.

 

Councillor Rahman moved the proceedings of the Art Galleries Committee and the part proceedings of the Executive, both held on 14 February 2024.

 

Councillor Akbar then moved the Revenue and Capital Budgets and the recommendations as detailed in the reports submitted, this was seconded by Councillor Craig. Councillor Akbar then presented his budget statement for 2023/24 to Council.

 

The Lord Mayor reported that as there was no current Opposition Group or Finance spokesperson, there would be an opportunity for the leader or spokesperson from each of the opposition groups to respond to Councillor Akbar’s budget statement for a combined time of 20 minutes. Councillor Johnson and Councillor Kilpatrick gave a response to the budget statement.  

 

The Council then considered an amendment to the Council Budget 2024/25.

 

Two amendments to the budget that were proposed by Councillor Leech had been submitted. The amendments were seconded by Councillor Good.

 

Proposed amendment 1:

 

‘In order to support the least well-off Manchester Council Taxpayers during the

continuing cost of living crisis, the following proposals to the Council Tax

Support Scheme as follows:

• To allocate a budget of £770,000, subject to consultation, to enable the

Council to deliver a Council Tax rebate to Manchester residents in receipt of the maximum Council Tax support equivalent to increasing the maximum support from 85% to 87.5%; to be funded through the transfer from the General Fund Reserve.

• To allocate a budget of £75,000, subject to consultation, to enable the Council to deliver a Council Tax rebate to Manchester residents in receipt of the maximum Council Tax support equivalent to the increase that they would be expected to pay to cover the increased precepts for the Police and Fire services and to cover the increase of the Mayoral General precept; to be funded through the transfer from the General Fund Reserve.’

 

The Lord Mayor put the amendment to the vote. The outcome was recorded as follows:

 

For the amendment (8)

 

Councillors:

 

Abdullatif, Good, Johnson Kilpatrick, Leech, Northwood, Nunney and Wiest

 

Against the amendment (77)

 

Councillors:

 

Akbar, Azra Ali, Ahmed Ali, Shaukat Ali, Amin, Appleby, Bell, Benham, Brickell, Bridges, Butt, Chambers, Chohan, Collins, Connolly, Cooley, Craig, Curley, Davies, Douglas, Evans, Flanagan, Fletcher, Foley, Gartside, Green, Grimshaw, Hacking, Hassan, Hewitson, Hilal, Holt, Hughes, Hussain, Igbon, Ilyas, Iqbal, T Judge, Karney, Kirkpatrick, Lanchbury, Lovecy, Ludford, Lynch, Marsh, McCaul, McHale, Midgley, Moran, Muse, Noor, Ogunbambo, Rahman, Rawlins, Rawson, Razaq, Reeves, Reid, Riasat, Richards, I Robinson, T Robinson, Rowles, Sadler, M Sharif Mahamed, Sheikh, Shilton Godwin, Simcock, Stogia, Taylor, Wheeler, Whiston, White, Wills, Wilson and Wright (*Councillor Moran indicated to the meeting that she had intended to vote against the amendment but had mis-voted.)

 

Abstentions (2)

 

Councillors: Andrews and Dar

 

The Lord Mayor declared the amendment lost.

 

Proposed amendment 2:

 

‘In order to tackle long-standing problems with highways maintenance, gully repairs, fly tipping, littering and illegal parking as follows (amendment 2a and 2b):

• To allocate a budget of £1,000,000 to invest additional resources into highways maintenance, to tackle the backlog of road and pavement repairs and gully repairs, to save money on future accident trip claims and to reduce the ongoing day to day maintenance costs on gully clearing and repairs; to be funded through the transfer from the General Fund Reserve.

• To allocate a budget of £350,000 to invest additional resources into CCTV to

tackle fly tipping hotspots by improving detection rates and increasing enforcement and reducing instances of fly tipping, and to add or replace

unsuitable bins in specific problem spots where existing bin capacity results is

insufficient; to be funded through the transfer from the Budget Smoothing

Reserve.

 

• To allocate a budget of £105,000 to invest additional resources into CCTV

enforcement vehicles to tackle specific parking enforcement hotspots; to be

funded through the transfer from the On-street Parking Reserve.

 

All proposals in this amendment are one off spending commitments for 2024/2025, with a review to be carried out on the cost-effectiveness of the parking enforcement income generated by the leasing of additional CCTV enforcement vehicles.’

 

The Lord Mayor put the amendment to the vote. The outcome was recorded as follows:

 

For the amendment (7)

 

Councillors:

 

Good, Johnson Kilpatrick, Leech, Northwood, Nunney and Wiest

 

Against the amendment (78)

 

Councillors:

 

Abdullatif, Akbar, Azra Ali, Ahmed Ali, Shaukat Ali, Amin, Appleby, Bell, Benham, Brickell, Bridges, Butt, Chambers, Chohan, Collins, Connolly, Cooley, Craig, Curley, Davies, Douglas, Evans, Flanagan, Fletcher, Foley, Gartside, Green, Grimshaw, Hacking, Hassan, Hewitson, Hilal, Holt, Hughes, Hussain, Igbon, Ilyas, Iqbal, T Judge, Karney, Kirkpatrick, Lanchbury, Lovecy, Ludford, Lynch, Marsh, McCaul, McHale, Midgley, Moran*, Muse, Noor, Ogunbambo, Rahman, Rawlins, Rawson, Razaq, Reeves, Reid, Riasat, Richards, I Robinson, T Robinson, Rowles, Sadler, M Sharif Mahamed, Sheikh, Shilton Godwin, Simcock, Stogia, Taylor, Wheeler, Whiston, White, Wills, Wilson and Wright

 

Abstentions (2)

 

Councillors: Andrews and Dar

 

The Lord Mayor declared the amendment lost.

The Lord Mayor then invited the Council to vote on the budget motion proposed by Councillor Akbar, as the substantive budget resolution, and in doing so sought Council:-

 

1.    To approve the minutes of the Art Galleries Committee held on 14 February 2024, to agree the Art Galleries budget for 2024/25.

 

2.    To adopt the part proceedings of the Executive held on 14 February 2024, as included in the Council summons and in particular, the Council is recommended to approve as elements of the budget for 2024/25:

 

·       An increase in the basic amount of Council Tax (i.e., the Council’s element of Council Tax) by 2.99% and Adult Social Care precept increase of 2%.

·       The contingency sum of £0.6m.

·       Corporate budget requirements to cover levies/charges of £72.463m, capital financing costs of £43.926m, additional allowances and other pension costs of £8.497m and insurance costs of £2.004m.

·       The inflationary pressures and budgets to be allocated in the sum of £17.357m; and delegate the final allocations to the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources.

 

3.    To note the minutes of the Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee held on 26 February 2024, regarding the consideration of the overall budget proposals and in doing so to note the consideration of the budget by the five scrutiny committees.

 

4.    To note the 2024/25 Budget Consultation Results report.

 

5.    To note the Capital Programme Monitoring 2023/24 report.

 

6.    That in considering the Capital Strategy and Budget for 2023/24 to 2026/27 report, to:

 

1. Approve the budget changes for the capital programme noted in section 7, of the report.

2. Note the capital programme as presented in Appendix 3 of the report (£408.2m in 2023/24, £463.7m in 2024/25, £173.8m in 2025/26, £62.9m in 2026/27. £7.8m in 2027/28 and £5.6m in 2028/29) which will require prudential borrowing of £424.0m to fund non-HRA schemes over the four-year period for which provision has been made in the revenue budget for the associated financing costs (within limits previously agreed).

3. Note that the profile of spend is provisional, and a further update will be provided in the outturn report for 2023/24.  

4. To delegate authority to:

a) The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to approve capital expenditure on schemes which have budget approval.

b) The Chief Executive and Director of Highways in consultation with the Executive Member for Environment for the approval of the list of schemes to be undertaken under the Highways capital programme.

c) The Chief Executive and Director of Highways to implement the Highways schemes in accordance with the Capital Approval process and after consultation with the Executive Member for Environment on the final details and estimated costs.

d) The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to add qualifying spend to save projects to the capital budget accordingly up to a maximum of £5m in 2024/25 and then £5m per year thereafter.

e) The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to approve Powering Our Schools qualifying spend to save loan schemes outside of £5m maximum invest to save outlined in constitution.

f) The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to accelerate spend from later years, when necessary, within the programme subject to resource availability.

g) The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to agree and approve where appropriate the programme of schemes for the delivery of the corporate asset management programme.

h) The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer and the Strategic Director for Growth and Development in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to agree and approve acquisitions using the Strategic Acquisitions budget.

 

7.    That in considering the Treasury Management Strategy Statement 2024/25, including Borrowing Limits and Annual Investment Strategy, to:

 

1. Approve the proposed Treasury Management Strategy Statement, the:

? Borrowing Requirement listed in Section 7 of the report;

? Borrowing Strategy outlined in Section 10 of the report;

? Annual Investment Strategy detailed in Section 11 of the report;

? Prudential and Treasury Indicators listed in Appendix A of the report;

? MRP Strategy outlined in Appendix B of the report;

? Treasury Management Policy Statement, at Appendix C of the report; and,

? Treasury Management Scheme of Delegation, at Appendix D of the report.

 

2. Delegate to the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources, the power to pursue any restructuring, rescheduling or redemption opportunities available, including amendments to the Treasury Management Strategy if the changes require it. Any changes required to the Strategy will be reported to members at the earliest opportunity.

8. That in considering the Council Tax Resolution 2024/25 report:

 

1.    To adopt those proceedings of the Executive on 14 February 2024 which contain details of the following:

• Medium Term Financial Strategy and Revenue Budget 2024/25

• Corporate Core Budget 2024/25

• Children and Education Services Budget 2024/25

• Public Health Budget 2024/25

• Adult Social Care Budget 2024/25

• Neighbourhoods Budget 2024/25

• Homelessness Budget 2024/25

• Growth and Development Budget 2024/25

• Housing Revenue Account 2024/25 to 2026/27

• Schools Budget 2024/25

• Capital Strategy and Budget 2024/25 to 2026/27

• Treasury Management Strategy Statement 2024/25, including Borrowing Limits and Annual Investment Strategy

 

2. To note the proposed Savings and Efficiencies, as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report submitted.

 

3. To note the proposed Growth and Investments, as detailed in Appendix 2 to this report.

 

4. To note the position on Reserves, as detailed in Appendix 3 to the report submitted.

 

5. To note that the Council Tax determination, included at Appendix 4 reflects the budget position.

 

6. To note the information on the referenda, as detailed in Section 3 of the report submitted.

 

7. To approve the Council Tax determination, as detailed in Appendix 4 of the report submitted.

 

·       Calculates the Council Tax requirement in accordance with Section 31A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as amended by the Localism Act 2011.

·       Calculates a basic amount of Council Tax and an amount of tax for each valuation band (the Council element) in accordance with Sections 31B and 36 of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992, as amended.

·       Sets an amount of Council Tax for each category of dwellings in each valuation band in accordance with Section 30 of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992.

 

9. To approve the Treasury Management Strategy including borrowing requirement and strategy, Annual Investment Strategy, Prudential and Treasury Indicators, Minimum Revenue Provision strategy included at Appendix 5.

 

10. To Approve the Collection Fund Budget for 2024/25, as set out in Appendix 6 to the report submitted.

 

 

For the Motion: (77)

 

Councillors:

 

Abdullatif, Akbar, Azra Ali, Ahmed Ali, Shaukat Ali, Amin, Appleby, Bell, Benham, Brickell, Bridges, Butt, Chambers, Chohan, Collins, Connolly, Cooley, Craig, Curley, Davies, Douglas, Evans, Flanagan, Fletcher, Foley, Gartside, Green, Grimshaw, Hacking, Hassan, Hewitson, Hilal, Holt, Hughes, Hussain, Igbon, Ilyas, Iqbal, Judge, Karney, Kirkpatrick, Lanchbury, Lovecy*, Ludford, Lynch, Lyons, Marsh, McCaul, McHale, Midgley, Moran, Muse, Noor, Ogunbambo, Rahman, Rawlins, Rawson, Razaq, Reeves, Reid, Riasat, Richards*, I Robinson, T Robinson, Rowles, Sadler, M Sharif Mahamed, Sheikh, Shilton Godwin, Simcock, Taylor, Wheeler, Whiston, White, Wills, Wilson and Wright (*Councillors Lovecy and Richards indicated to the meeting that they had intended to vote for the budget motion but had mis-voted.

 

Against the motion (0)

 

Abstaining (9)

 

Councillors: Andrews, Dar, Good, Kilpatrick, Johnson, Leech, Northwood, Nunney and Wiest

 

 

The Lord Mayor declared the Budget 2024/25 motion carried. 

           

Decisions:

 

1.    To approve the minutes of the Art Galleries Committee held on 14 February 2024, to agree the Art Galleries budget for 2024/25.

 

2.    To adopt the part proceedings of the Executive held on 14 February 2024, as included in the Council summons and in particular, the Council is recommended to approve as elements of the budget for 2024/25:

 

·       An increase in the basic amount of Council Tax (i.e., the Council’s element of Council Tax) by 2.99% and Adult Social Care precept increase of 2%.

·       The contingency sum of £0.6m.

·       Corporate budget requirements to cover levies/charges of £72.463m, capital financing costs of £43.926m, additional allowances and other pension costs of £8.497m and insurance costs of £2.004m.

·       The inflationary pressures and budgets to be allocated in the sum of £17.357m; and delegate the final allocations to the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources.

 

3.    To note the minutes of the Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee held on 26 February 2024, regarding the consideration of the overall budget proposals and in doing so to note the consideration of the budget by the five scrutiny committees.

 

4.    To note the 2024/25 Budget Consultation Results report.

 

5.    To note the Capital Programme Monitoring 2023/24 report.

 

6.    That in considering the Capital Strategy and Budget for 2023/24 to 2026/27 report, to:

 

1. Approve the budget changes for the capital programme noted in section 7, of the report.

2. Note the capital programme as presented in Appendix 3 of the report (£408.2m in 2023/24, £463.7m in 2024/25, £173.8m in 2025/26, £62.9m in 2026/27. £7.8m in 2027/28 and £5.6m in 2028/29) which will require prudential borrowing of £424.0m to fund non-HRA schemes over the four-year period for which provision has been made in the revenue budget for the associated financing costs (within limits previously agreed).

3. Note that the profile of spend is provisional, and a further update will be provided in the outturn report for 2023/24.  

4. To delegate authority to:

a) The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to approve capital expenditure on schemes which have budget approval.

b) The Chief Executive and Director of Highways in consultation with the Executive Member for Environment for the approval of the list of schemes to be undertaken under the Highways capital programme.

c) The Chief Executive and Director of Highways to implement the Highways schemes in accordance with the Capital Approval process and after consultation with the Executive Member for Environment on the final details and estimated costs.

d) The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to add qualifying spend to save projects to the capital budget accordingly up to a maximum of £5m in 2024/25 and then £5m per year thereafter.

e) The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to approve Powering Our Schools qualifying spend to save loan schemes outside of £5m maximum invest to save outlined in constitution.

f) The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to accelerate spend from later years, when necessary, within the programme subject to resource availability.

g) The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to agree and approve where appropriate the programme of schemes for the delivery of the corporate asset management programme.

h) The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer and the Strategic Director for Growth and Development in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to agree and approve acquisitions using the Strategic Acquisitions budget.

 

7.    That in considering the Treasury Management Strategy Statement 2024/25, including Borrowing Limits and Annual Investment Strategy, to:

 

1. Approve the proposed Treasury Management Strategy Statement, the:

? Borrowing Requirement listed in Section 7 of the report;

? Borrowing Strategy outlined in Section 10 of the report;

? Annual Investment Strategy detailed in Section 11 of the report;

? Prudential and Treasury Indicators listed in Appendix A of the report;

? MRP Strategy outlined in Appendix B of the report;

? Treasury Management Policy Statement, at Appendix C of the report; and,

? Treasury Management Scheme of Delegation, at Appendix D of the report.

 

2. Delegate to the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources, the power to pursue any restructuring, rescheduling or redemption opportunities available, including amendments to the Treasury Management Strategy if the changes require it. Any changes required to the Strategy will be reported to members at the earliest opportunity.

8. That in considering the Council Tax Resolution 2024/25 report:

1.    Adopt those proceedings of the Executive on 14 February 2024 which contain details of the following:

• Medium Term Financial Strategy and Revenue Budget 2024/25

• Corporate Core Budget 2024/25

• Children and Education Services Budget 2024/25

• Public Health Budget 2024/25

• Adult Social Care Budget 2024/25

• Neighbourhoods Budget 2024/25

• Homelessness Budget 2024/25

• Growth and Development Budget 2024/25

• Housing Revenue Account 2024/25 to 2026/27

• Schools Budget 2024/25

• Capital Strategy and Budget 2024/25 to 2026/27

• Treasury Management Strategy Statement 2024/25, including Borrowing Limits and Annual Investment Strategy

 

2. To note the proposed Savings and Efficiencies, as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report submitted.

 

3. To note the proposed Growth and Investments, as detailed in Appendix 2 to this report.

 

4. To note the position on Reserves, as detailed in Appendix 3 to the report submitted.

 

5. To note that the Council Tax determination included at Appendix 4 reflects the budget position.

 

6. To note the information on the referenda, as detailed in Section 3 of the report submitted.

 

7. To approve the Council Tax determination, as detailed in Appendix 4 of the report submitted.

 

The Council Tax determination:

·       Calculates the Council Tax requirement in accordance with Section 31A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as amended by the Localism Act 2011.

·       Calculates a basic amount of Council Tax and an amount of tax for each valuation band (the Council element) in accordance with Sections 31B and 36 of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992, as amended.

·       Sets an amount of Council Tax for each category of dwellings in each valuation band in accordance with Section 30 of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992.  

9. To approve the Treasury Management Strategy including borrowing requirement and strategy, Annual Investment Strategy, Prudential and Treasury Indicators, Minimum Revenue Provision strategy included at Appendix 5.

 10. To Approve the Collection Fund Budget for 2024/25, as set out in Appendix 6 to the report submitted.