1. Purpose of the report and policy context

1.1 To update Members with further budget information and revisions since the General Fund Revenue Budget, Capital & Treasury Management Strategy 2025/26 report was considered at Cabinet on the 13 February 2025.

1.2 The proposed budget is based on the Administration’s proposed increase to the City Council’s element of the council tax of 4.99% including a 2% Adult Social Care precept. Together with the Police and Fire elements of the council tax, the overall increase for most residents of Brighton and Hove will be 5.04%.

2. Recommendations

2.1 That Council uses the statutory budget calculation and the Council Tax Resolution set out in this report to derive a 4.99% council tax increase and for the basis of debate at the meeting.

3. Context and background information

2025/26 General Fund Budget & Council Tax

3.1 The new and revised information covered in this report was indicated in paragraph 13.3 of the 13 February 2025 Cabinet report and covers the following:

· Any other grants that were announced before Budget Council;

· The agreed Council Tax set by East Sussex Fire Authority and Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner;

· The statutory Council Tax calculations required under the 1992 Local Government Finance Act;

· The full budget and Council Tax resolution for Budget Council;

· Other information as necessary including a detailed Budget Book.

Final Local Government Finance Settlement

3.2 The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS) was announced by the government on 18 December 2024. The draft budget papers presented to both the Place Overview and Scrutiny committee and the People Overview and Scrutiny committee on 7 February were prepared on the basis of the provisional LGFS.

3.3 The final LGFS was announced by the government on 3 February 2025. The settlement included additional funding of £0.128m for the authority, comprising of additional Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant of £0.055m and allocation of Employer NI contribution compensation of £0.073m over and above the assumption based on information provided in the provisional LFGS.

3.4 This additional funding was included in the General Fund Revenue Budget, Capital & Treasury Management Strategy 2025/26 report considered at Cabinet on the 13 February 2025 and was applied in the following way:

· a Public Health saving regarding NHS Health Checks of £0.100m was removed;

· the remaining £0.028m was allocated to the risk provision, increasing it from £1.719m to £1.747m.

Cabinet budget amendment

3.5 The Department for Health and Social Care announced the Public Health Grant allocations on 7 February 2025, providing a 5.4% uplift. This uplift is equivalent to additional grant of £1.227m for the council. After assessing the funding requirements to provide contractual uplifts for NHS contracts, which are 80% NHS staffing, provide protection for the Employers National Insurance increase on the Public Health staffing budget together with pay award provision, and provide necessary resources to address the part-year effect of some savings, it was assessed that the uplift provided flexibility of £0.230m.

3.6 The Administration proposed an amendment at Cabinet on 13 February to use this flexibility to reduce £0.230m of the savings proposed within the Public Health budget. This proposal was carried and accordingly, the Savings proposals (Appendix 2) and Equality Impact Assessments (Appendix 7) have been updated to reflect the approved amendment.

Other changes

3.7 There have been three other changes to the report as follows:

· The 2025/26 fee for Saltdean Beach Chalet (West) was omitted from Appendix 3 in error. This has now been added to Table 3, Appendix 3.

· The number of deleted posts associated with the restructure of Public Health service has been reduced from 14 to 10 fte. This reduction is partially as a result of the changes to the Public Health savings made in the amendment outlined in 3.5 above, and partly due to a reassessment of the impact on resources. This has resulted in the overall number of posts (FTEs) proposed to be deleted across the council reducing from 60 to 56 fte.

· Core Spending Power information has been updated to reflect the final Local Government Financial Settlement.

Council Tax

3.8 The following table shows the overall council tax proposed incorporating the amounts set by the Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner and the East Sussex Fire Authority.

TABLE 6: Council Tax
	2025/26 Band D Council Tax	Change on 2024/25	Percentage change
Brighton & Hove City Council	£2,076.39	£98.73	4.99%
Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner	£266.91	£14.00	5.54%
East Sussex Fire Authority	£112.49	£5.00	4.65%
Total for Brighton & Hove residents	£2,455.79	£117.73	5.04%

Budget and Council Tax Appendices

3.9 Details of the additional council taxes paid by residents of Rottingdean Parish and Enclosure Committees for the maintenance of gardens in Hanover Crescent, Marine Square and Royal Crescent are given in Appendix 9.

3.10 The list of new budget and council tax appendices attached to this report is included under Supporting Documentation below.

Supporting Documentation

Appendices

8. The statutory calculations required under the 1992 Local Government Act

9. Proposed full resolution for Budget Council

10. Budget Book 2025/26