RESOLVED:

That Cabinet

1)      considered and agrees to response to the Overview and Scrutiny Commission;

2)      resolved that, having considered all of the information in this report and noted the positive assurance statement given by the Director of Corporate Services based on the proposed strategy, the Council Tax in 2016/17, equating to a Band D Council Tax of £1,102.25 be approved and recommended to Council for approval. This represents a Council Tax freeze.

3)      considered all of the latest information and the comments from the scrutiny process, and makes recommendations to Council as appropriate

4)      resolved that the Business Plan 2016-20 including the General Fund Budget and Council Tax Strategy for 2016/17, and the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for 2016-2020 as submitted, along with the Equality Assessments (EAs), be approved and recommended to Council for approval subject to any proposed amendments agreed at this meeting;

5)      resolved that, having considered all of the latest information and the comments from the scrutiny process, the Capital Investment Programme (as detailed in Annex 1 to the Capital Strategy); the Treasury Management Strategy (Section 5), including the detailed recommendations in that Section, incorporating the Prudential Indicators and the Capital Strategy (Section 4) as submitted and reported upon be approved and recommended to Council for approval, subject to any proposed amendments agreed at this meeting;

6)      notes that the GLA precept will not be agreed by the London Assembly until the 22 February 2016, but the provisional figure has been incorporated into the draft MTFS

7)      requests officers to review the savings proposals agreed and where possible bring them forward to the earliest possible implementation date

8)      notes that there may be minor amendments to figures in this report as a result of new information being received after the deadline for dispatch and that this will be amended for the report to Council in March

9)      approves the Risk Management Strategy

10)    in response to concerns raised at Scrutiny, review the current level of service being provided by Crossroads if they were to continue into 2016/17, with any shortfall being met from non-recurring savings and work with them to enable them to re-focus their service from 2017  in line with the needs of carers and in particular in order to offer a competitive and quality service to carers with personal budgets who want to choose the respite package that suits their needs best.

11)    in response to concerns raised at Scrutiny that the reduction in government funding is causing pressures in adult social care in particular, that a new “Savings Mitigation Fund” reserve of £1.3m is established by applying the additional New Homes Bonus to reduce the impact  in 2016/17 on our most vulnerable residents, to update the MTFS accordingly and that officers are asked to seek to identify if similar significant funding is available in future years.