Brighton & Hove City Council

Budget Council                                               Agenda Item 79

Date of meeting 27 February 2025

GENERAL FUND REVENUE BUDGET, CAPITAL

& TREASURY MANAGEMENT STRATEGY 2025/26

Green Group Amendment 1

It is proposed to:

· Reduce the savings in Library Services shown on page 46, Appendix 2 (Agenda Item 79) by £0.069m from £0.111m to £0.042m to protect the opening hours at Jubilee and Hove Libraries and maintain the level of community libraries.

· Remove the saving in Trading Standards of £0.035m as shown on page 62, Appendix 2 (Agenda Item 79).

· Reduce the saving in Youth led grants of £0.040m as shown on page 51, Appendix 2 (Agenda Item 79) by £0.026m.

These proposals require recurrent funding of £0.130m.

It is proposed to fund this by:

· Increasing all on street and off street parking fees by an average of 1% which generates a net £0.130m in 2025/26 after allowing for the cost of Traffic Regulation Orders, the timing of their implementation and the potential impact on demand.

New fees and charges as detailed on pages 9 – 13

Chief Finance Officer comments:

The use of any surplus income raised through on-street parking, known as the parking surplus, is required to meet the criteria set out in Section 55 of the Road Traffic Act Regulation Act 1984. This income will therefore need to be reinvested in existing eligible transport services to release General Fund resources to support this amendment.

It should be noted that increasing parking fees can have other impacts on the visitor and business economies that can also ultimately impact council finances and revenues including the retained share of business rates. However, these impacts are not quantifiable with accuracy.

Green Group Amendment 2

It is proposed to:

· Reduce the saving in Youth led grants of £0.040m as shown on page 51, Appendix 2 (Agenda Item 79) by £0.028m.

This proposal requires recurrent funding of £0.028m. It is proposed to fund this by:

· Repurposing £0.028m of the risk provision as shown on page 436 (Agenda Item 80).

Chief Finance Officer comments:

The final local government settlement provided an additional £0.128m recurrent resources. £0.100m was allocated to reduce savings and the remaining £0.028m was added to the existing risk provision for 2025/26.

The risk provision is at a minimum level given the high level of savings and therefore risk inherent in the budget proposals, particularly given many successive years of high savings requirements. For this reason, any unallocated sums were added to the risk provision.

Note that if Green Group amendments 1 and 2 are carried, this would increase the current Youth-led Grants budget from £0.040m to £0.054m.

Green Group Amendment 3

It is proposed to:

· Remove the saving of £0.015m for Neighbourhood Programmes warm homes and fuel poverty strategy as shown on page 53, Appendix 2 (Agenda Item 79).

· Remove the saving of £0.050m for the Healthy Child Programme as shown on page 52, Appendix 2 (Agenda Item 79).

This proposal requires recurrent funding of £0.065m. It is proposed to fund this by:

· Reducing the budget available for glyphosate weed removal of £0.300m by £0.065m to £0.235m.

Chief Finance Officer comments:

This will reduce the budget available to treat weeds across the city. Experience during the period that glyphosate was not in use showed that weeds were difficult to control and that manual removal was ultimately more costly. This therefore risks a potentially higher presence of weeds and potentially higher costs if their removal or reduction is required or they are left untreated causing greater damage to the public realm.

Green Group Amendment 4

It is proposed to: -

· Reduce the saving of £0.090m in Community Safety as shown on page 46, Appendix 2 (Agenda Item 79) by £0.050m to £0.040m.

This proposal requires recurrent funding of £0.050m. It is proposed to fund this by:

· Reducing the investment in Public Realm as shown in table 1 on page 21 (Agenda Item 79) from £0.250m to £0.200m.

Chief Finance Officer comments:

The amendment is viable being a choice between different priorities.