Issue - meetings

The Mayor invited the Monitoring Officer to outline the requirement for votes.

It was noted that the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, and the Council’s Standing Orders required the Council to record in the minutes how each Councillor voted, including any abstentions, when determining the Council’s Budget and the level of Council Tax to be levied. 

The only requirement was to record in the minutes of the meeting how each member voted, and given that there were 10 amendments and a substantive motion to be voted on, it could be recorded in the minutes of the meeting how each member voted, including any who have abstained, by a show of hands.

The Mayor then called on Councillor Arthur to introduce the budget and move the budget report – 2018/19 Budget – and the recommendations a-q at pages 24 and 25 of the agenda pack. Councillor Kober formally seconded the motion, and reserved her right to respond during the debate.

The Mayor then invited Councillor Engert to move her group’s 10 amendments, as set out in the tabled papers. Councillor Newton formally seconded the amendments and reserved the right to speak during the debate.

The Mayor then opened the debate, in which Councillors Connor, Wright, Ross, Gideon Bull (who declared an interest as an employee of the National Health Service), Carter, Peacock, Hare, Diakides, Goldberg and Kober contributed to the discussion. Councillor Engert and then Councillor Arthur responded to the debate.

The Mayor then called for a vote on Budget Amendment 1. There being 7 Members in favour (Councillors Beacham, Carter, Connor, Engert, Hare, Newton and Ross), and

40 Members opposed (Councillors Ahmet, Ayisi, Amin, Arthur, Basu, Berryman, Bevan, B Blake, M Blake, Brabazon, G Bull, Carroll, Christophides, Demirci, Diakides, Doron, Ejiofor, Gallagher, Goldberg, Griffith, Gunes, Ibrahim, Jogee, Kober, Mallett, J Mann, S Mann, McNamara, McShane, Mitchell, Ozbek, Patterson, Peacock, Reith, Rice, Strickland, Vanier, Waters, Weston, Wright), and

No abstentions,

Budget Amendment 1 was declared LOST.

The Mayor then called for a vote on Budget Amendment 2. There being 7 Members in favour (Councillors Beacham, Carter, Connor, Engert, Hare, Newton and Ross), and

40 Members opposed (Councillors Ahmet, Ayisi, Amin, Arthur, Basu, Berryman, Bevan, B Blake, M Blake, Brabazon, G Bull, Carroll, Christophides, Demirci, Diakides, Doron, Ejiofor, Gallagher, Goldberg, Griffith, Gunes, Ibrahim, Jogee, Kober, Mallett, J Mann, S Mann, McNamara, McShane, Mitchell, Ozbek, Patterson, Peacock, Reith, Rice, Strickland, Vanier, Waters, Weston, Wright),

and

No abstentions,

Budget Amendment 2 was declared LOST.

The Mayor then called for a vote on Budget Amendment 3. There being 7 Members in favour (Councillors Beacham, Carter, Connor, Engert, Hare, Newton and Ross), and

40 Members opposed (Councillors Ahmet, Ayisi, Amin, Arthur, Basu, Berryman, Bevan, B Blake, M Blake, Brabazon, G Bull, Carroll, Christophides, Demirci, Diakides, Doron, Ejiofor, Gallagher, Goldberg, Griffith, Gunes, Ibrahim, Jogee, Kober, Mallett, J Mann, S Mann, McNamara, McShane, Mitchell, Ozbek, Patterson, Peacock, Reith, Rice, Strickland, Vanier, Waters, Weston, Wright),

and

No abstentions,

Budget Amendment 3 was declared LOST.

The Mayor  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70

[ Report of the Interim  Deputy Chief Finance Officer. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance and Health.] To agree the Council's Medium Term Financial Strategy 2018/19-2022/23 including the Capital Programme and to approve the final budget and Council Tax for 2018/19 for onward consideration and approval by full Council on the 26th of February 2018.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Health introduced the report which finalised the Council’s General Fund and HRA 2018/19 Budgets and the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for the period 2018/19 to 2022/23, and proposed approval of the constituent elements of the strategy to Full Council on 26th February 2018, together with the Council’s capital budgets for 2018/19.

The Cabinet Member outlined that, since Cabinet consideration of the MTFS in December, the Local Government settlement had been received. The financial position had improved slightly but there were still significant challenges for the budget in 2018/19. The report was proposing, that alongside the £15m General Fund reserve allocation, a budget resilience reserve of £7.2 million be added to provide capacity to help manage the risk in the budget.

The Cabinet Member thanked participants for their contributions in the public consultation on budget proposals for 2018/19. There had been a lower response rate than last year but this was due to the 2018/19 proposals building on the budget proposals agreed in 1207/18 budget process.

RESOLVED

1.    To consider the outcome of the budget consultation as set out in Appendix 8, to be included in the report to Council. Having considering this, this report does not propose any amendments to the budget proposed for 2018/19 nor to the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) 2018-2023.

2.    To approve the responses made to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommendations following their consideration of the draft budget proposals as set out in Appendix 7.

3.    To note the mitigations identified to deal with projected service budget overspend in 2017/18 set out in table 6.7.

4.    To propose approval to the Council of the 2018/19 Budget and MTFS 2018/23 Savings Proposals as set out in Appendix 9

5.    To propose approval to the Council of the 2018/19 General Fund Revenue Budget as set out in Appendix 1, including specifically a General Fund budget requirement of £249.228m, but subject to final decisions of the levying and precepting bodies and the final local government finance settlement.

6.    To propose approval to the Council of the General Fund Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) 2018-2023 as set out in Appendix 1.

7.    To propose approval to the Council of the creation and maintenance of a Budget Resilience Reserve.

8.    To propose approval to the Council, subject to any agreed amendments, of the budget proposals for 2018/19 as set out in this report at Appendix 6, including the 3% precept on Council Tax towards funding Adult Social Care pressures.

9.    To propose approval to the Council that the overall council tax to be set by London Borough of Haringey for 2018/19 will be £1,281.57 per Band D property, which represents a freezing of the 2017/18 rate but with an additional 3% for the Adult Social Care precept.

10. To note the council tax base of the London Borough of Haringey, as agreed by the Section 151 Officer under delegated authority (Article 4.01(b), Part 2, of the Constitution), as 77,093 for the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 169