The Mayor outlined the procedure for this Budget Council meeting. She also reminded the Council that all budget related decisions, including proposed amendments, were required to be recorded within the minutes with a list of the names of those who voted for or against the decision or who abstained from voting. To accommodate that, a roll call vote would be taken for the substantive budget motion and any amendments to it. 

 

At the invitation of the Mayor, the Director of Corporate Services presented the Business Plan 2019-2023.  The Director then responded to questions from Councillors Agatha Akyigyina, Oonagh Moulton, Simon McGrath, Owen Pritchard, David Simpson, Paul Kohler, Pauling Cowper, Janice Howard, Russell Makin, Brenda Fraser, James Holmes, Abdul Latif and Nigel Benbow.

 

The Leader of the Council presented the Business Plan 2019-23 and formally moved the recommendations in the report whilst making his budget speech to Council, a copy of which is appended to the minutes as Appendix A.

 

Councillor Tobin Byers formally seconded the recommendations, and reserved his right to speak.

 

The Mayor then invited the opposition Group Leaders in turn to respond to the Budget proposal and the Business Plan.

 

The Leader of the Conservative Group, Councillor Nick McLean addressed the meeting and his speech is attached to the minutes, as Appendix B.  As part of his speech, he presented the proposed amendment to the Business Plan 2019-23.

 

The Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, Councillor Anthony Fairclough, addressed the meeting, and his speech is attached to the minutes, as Appendix C.  As part of his speech, he presented the proposed amendments to the Business Plan 2019-23.

 

The Leader of the Merton Park Ward Independent Residents Group, Councillor Peter Southgate, addressed the meeting and his speech is attached to the minutes, as Appendix D.

 

The following members of the Cabinet addressed the meeting:   Councillors Mark Allison, Caroline Cooper-Marbiah and Kelly Braund.

 

The Mayor then invited members to move proposed amendments to the Business Plan.

 

Councillor Nick McLean moved the Conservative amendment which was seconded by Councillor David Williams.

 

Councillor Anthony Fairclough moved the Liberal Democrat amendment 1 which was seconded by Councillor Eloise Bailey.

 

Councillor Anthony Fairclough moved the Liberal Democrat amendment 2 which was seconded by Councillor Eloise Bailey.

 

Councillor Anthony Fairclough moved the Liberal Democrat amendment 3 which was seconded by Councillor Eloise Bailey.

 

Councillor Anthony Fairclough moved the Liberal Democrat amendment 4 which was seconded by Councillor Eloise Bailey.

 

The Mayor then opened up the general debate on the proposed amendments and on the proposed substantive Business Plan.  The following members spoke in the debate:  Councillors Billy Christie, Hayley Ormrod, Marsie Skeete, Daniel Holden, Carl Quilliam, Nick Draper, David Dean, Eleanor Stringer, Stephen Crowe, John Dehaney, Edward Gretton, Joan Henry, Adam Bush, Dave Ward, Omar Bush, Hina Bokhari, Rebecca Lanning, Andrew Howard, Sally Kenny, Paul Kohler, Dennis Pearce, Mark Kenny, Natasha Irons, Aidan Mundy, Ben Butler, Laxmi Attawar, Martin Whelton, David Williams and, finally, Tobin Byers.

 

At the conclusion of the debate, the Mayor called for a roll-call vote on the Conservative amendment to the Business Plan 2019-2023.  Voting was as follows:

 

Votes in favour:  Councillors Eloise Bailey, Thomas Barlow, Nigel Benbow, Hina Bokhari, Adam Bush, Omar Bush, Stephen Crowe, David Dean, Anthony Fairclough, Edward Gretton, Daniel Holden, James Holmes, Andrew Howard, Janice Howard, Paul Kohler, Najeeb Latif, Simon McGrath, Nick McLean, Oonagh Moulton, Hayley Ormrod, Carl Quilliam, David Simpson and David Williams (23)

 

Votes against:  Councillors Agatha Akyigyina, Stephen Alambritis, Mark Allison, Stan Anderson, Laxmi Attawar, Kelly Braund, Mike Brunt, Ben Butler, Tobin Byers, Billy Christie, David Chung, Caroline Cooper-Marbiah, Pauline Cowper, John Dehaney, Nick Draper, Edward Foley, Brenda Fraser, Joan Henry, Natasha Irons, Mark Kenny, Sally Kenny, Linda Kirby, Rebecca Lanning, Edith Macauley, Russell Makin, Peter McCabe, Aidan Mundy, Dennis Pearce, Owen Pritchard, Marsie Skeete, Peter Southgate, Eleanor Stringer, Dave Ward, Martin Whelton, Dickie Wilkinson, the Deputy Mayor Councillor Geraldine Stanford and the Mayor, Councillor Mary Curtin (37)

 

The Mayor declared the amendment to be lost.

 

The Mayor then called for a roll-call vote on the Liberal Democrat amendment 1 to the Business Plan 2019-2023.  Voting was as follows:

 

Votes in favour:  Councillors Eloise Bailey, Thomas Barlow, Nigel Benbow, Hina Bokhari, Adam Bush, Omar Bush, Stephen Crowe, David Dean, Anthony Fairclough, Edward Gretton, Daniel Holden, James Holmes, Andrew Howard, Janice Howard, Paul Kohler, Najeeb Latif, Simon McGrath, Nick McLean, Oonagh Moulton, Hayley Ormrod, Carl Quilliam, David Simpson and David Williams (23)

 

Votes against:  Councillors Agatha Akyigyina, Stephen Alambritis, Mark Allison, Stan Anderson, Laxmi Attawar, Kelly Braund, Mike Brunt, Ben Butler, Tobin Byers, Billy Christie, David Chung, Caroline Cooper-Marbiah, Pauline Cowper, John Dehaney, Nick Draper, Edward Foley, Brenda Fraser, Joan Henry, Natasha Irons, Mark Kenny, Sally Kenny, Linda Kirby, Rebecca Lanning, Edith Macauley, Russell Makin, Peter McCabe, Aidan Mundy, Dennis Pearce, Owen Pritchard, Marsie Skeete, Peter Southgate, Eleanor Stringer, Dave Ward, Martin Whelton, Dickie Wilkinson, the Deputy Mayor Councillor Geraldine Stanford and the Mayor, Councillor Mary Curtin (37)

 

The Mayor declared the amendment to be lost.

 

The Mayor then called for a roll-call vote on the Liberal Democrat amendment 2 to the Business Plan 2019-2023.  Voting was as follows:

 

Votes in favour:  Councillors Eloise Bailey, Hina Bokhari, Anthony Fairclough, Paul Kohler, Simon McGrath and Carl Quilliam (6)

 

Votes against:  Councillors Agatha Akyigyina, Stephen Alambritis, Mark Allison, Stan Anderson, Laxmi Attawar, Kelly Braund, Mike Brunt, Ben Butler, Tobin Byers, Billy Christie, David Chung, Caroline Cooper-Marbiah, Pauline Cowper, John Dehaney, Nick Draper, Edward Foley, Brenda Fraser, Joan Henry, Natasha Irons, Mark Kenny, Sally Kenny, Linda Kirby, Rebecca Lanning, Edith Macauley, Russell Makin, Peter McCabe, Aidan Mundy, Dennis Pearce, Owen Pritchard, Marsie Skeete, Peter Southgate, Eleanor Stringer, Dave Ward, Martin Whelton, Dickie Wilkinson, the Deputy Mayor Councillor Geraldine Stanford and the Mayor, Councillor Mary Curtin (37)

 

Not voting:     Councillors Thomas Barlow, Nigel Benbow, Adam Bush, Omar Bush, Stephen Crowe, David Dean, Edward Gretton, Daniel Holden, James Holmes, Andrew Howard, Janice Howard, Najeeb Latif, Nick McLean, Oonagh Moulton, Hayley Ormrod, David Simpson and David Williams (17)

 

The Mayor declared the amendment to be lost.

 

Councillor David Williams advised that, due to the next amendment relating to the establishment of a Landlord Licensing scheme, he would be declaring an interest and leaving the chamber as he was a landlord of a property in the borough.

 

The Monitoring Officer advised that in his view Councillor Williams had no interest to declare.  As with voting on council tax, it was likely there would be a significant number of people affected and he could therefore could remain in the chamber and vote.

 

Councillor James Holmes sought clarification that the same advice applied to him, as a landlord in the borough.  The Monitoring Officer confirmed that his view was that there was no interest to declare.

 

The Mayor then called for a roll-call vote on the Liberal Democrat amendment 3 to the Business Plan 2019-2023.  Voting was as follows:

 

Votes in favour:  Councillors Eloise Bailey, Hina Bokhari, Anthony Fairclough, Paul Kohler, Simon McGrath and Carl Quilliam (6)

 

Votes against:  Councillors Agatha Akyigyina, Stephen Alambritis, Mark Allison, Stan Anderson, Laxmi Attawar, Kelly Braund, Mike Brunt, Ben Butler, Tobin Byers, Billy Christie, David Chung, Caroline Cooper-Marbiah, Pauline Cowper, John Dehaney, Nick Draper, Edward Foley, Brenda Fraser, Joan Henry, Natasha Irons, Mark Kenny, Sally Kenny, Linda Kirby, Rebecca Lanning, Edith Macauley, Russell Makin, Peter McCabe, Aidan Mundy, Dennis Pearce, Owen Pritchard, Marsie Skeete, Peter Southgate, Eleanor Stringer, Dave Ward, Martin Whelton, Dickie Wilkinson, the Deputy Mayor Councillor Geraldine Stanford and the Mayor, Councillor Mary Curtin (37)

 

Not voting:     Councillors Thomas Barlow, Nigel Benbow, Adam Bush, Omar Bush, Stephen Crowe, David Dean, Edward Gretton, Daniel Holden, James Holmes, Andrew Howard, Janice Howard, Najeeb Latif, Nick McLean, Oonagh Moulton, Hayley Ormrod, David Simpson and David Williams (17)

 

The Mayor declared the amendment to be lost.

 

The Mayor then called for a roll-call vote on the Liberal Democrat amendment 4 to the Business Plan 2019-2023.  Voting was as follows:

 

Votes in favour:  Councillors Eloise Bailey, Thomas Barlow, Nigel Benbow, Hina Bokhari, Adam Bush, Omar Bush, Stephen Crowe, David Dean, Anthony Fairclough, Edward Gretton, Daniel Holden, James Holmes, Andrew Howard, Janice Howard, Paul Kohler, Najeeb Latif, Simon McGrath, Nick McLean, Oonagh Moulton, Hayley Ormrod, Carl Quilliam, David Simpson and David Williams (23)

 

Votes against:  Councillors Agatha Akyigyina, Stephen Alambritis, Mark Allison, Stan Anderson, Laxmi Attawar, Kelly Braund, Mike Brunt, Ben Butler, Tobin Byers, Billy Christie, David Chung, Caroline Cooper-Marbiah, Pauline Cowper, John Dehaney, Nick Draper, Edward Foley, Brenda Fraser, Joan Henry, Natasha Irons, Mark Kenny, Sally Kenny, Linda Kirby, Rebecca Lanning, Edith Macauley, Russell Makin, Peter McCabe, Aidan Mundy, Dennis Pearce, Owen Pritchard, Marsie Skeete, Peter Southgate, Eleanor Stringer, Dave Ward, Martin Whelton, Dickie Wilkinson, the Deputy Mayor Councillor Geraldine Stanford and the Mayor, Councillor Mary Curtin (37)

 

The Mayor declared the amendment to be lost.

 

The Mayor then called for a roll-call vote on the substantive motion for the Business Plan 2019-23.  Voting was as follows:

 

Votes in favour:  Councillors Agatha Akyigyina, Stephen Alambritis, Mark Allison, Stan Anderson, Laxmi Attawar, Kelly Braund, Mike Brunt, Ben Butler, Tobin Byers, Billy Christie, David Chung, Caroline Cooper-Marbiah, Pauline Cowper, John Dehaney, Nick Draper, Edward Foley, Brenda Fraser, Joan Henry, Natasha Irons, Mark Kenny, Sally Kenny, Linda Kirby, Rebecca Lanning, Edith Macauley, Russell Makin, Peter McCabe, Aidan Mundy, Dennis Pearce, Owen Pritchard, Marsie Skeete, Peter Southgate, Eleanor Stringer, Dave Ward, Martin Whelton, Dickie Wilkinson, the Deputy Mayor Councillor Geraldine Stanford and the Mayor, Councillor Mary Curtin (37)

 

Votes against: Councillors Eloise Bailey, Thomas Barlow, Nigel Benbow, Hina Bokhari, Adam Bush, Omar Bush, Stephen Crowe, David Dean, Anthony Fairclough, Edward Gretton, Daniel Holden, James Holmes, Andrew Howard, Janice Howard, Paul Kohler, Najeeb Latif, Simon McGrath, Nick McLean, Oonagh Moulton, Hayley Ormrod, Carl Quilliam, David Simpson and David Williams (23)

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the Council agrees the Business Plan 2019-23 including:

A)   the General Fund Budget;

B)   the Council Tax Strategy for 2019/20 equating to a Band D Council Tax of £1,227.82, which is an increase of below 5%, inclusive of 2% Adult Social Care flexibility;

C)   the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for 2019-2023;

D)   the Capital Investment Programme (as detailed in Annex 1 to the Capital Strategy);

E)   the Capital Strategy (Section 1, A)

F)   the Treasury Management Strategy (Section 1, A), including the detailed recommendations in that Section, incorporating the Prudential Indicators as set out in this report;

and agrees the formal resolutions as set out in Appendix 1 to the report as follows:

 

Revenue Report:

 

1.            Members consider the views of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission set out in a separate report on the agenda (Item 6), and approve the proposed budget for 2019/20 set out in Section 2 of the revenue report, together with the proposed Council Tax levy in 2019/20.

 

2.            That it be noted that at its meeting on 10 December 2018 the Council

calculated its Council Tax Base for the year as 74,951.7 in accordance with regulation 3 of the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) Regulations 2012(SI 2012: 2914).

 

3.            That it be noted that the Council calculated the Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators (WPCC) Tax Base for the year as 11,464.4 in accordance with regulation 6 of the Regulations, as the amounts of its Council Tax base for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which one or more special items relate.

 

4.         That the Council agrees 4(a) - 4(i) below, which are calculated in accordance with Section 31A to 49B of the Localism Act 2011, amending Section 32 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

 

a)        being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 31A (2) (a) to (f) of the Act

 

	£m
Gross Revenue Expenditure of Service Committees Corporate Provisions Amounts Payable to the Levying Bodies Contribution to/(from) Financial Reserves Gross Expenditure	546.797 (3.777) 0.949 (4.186) 539.783

 

b)         being the aggregate of the amounts which the Council estimates for the items set out in Section 31A (3) (a) to (d) of the Act

 

	£m
Gross Income	(447.413)

 

c)         being the amount by which the aggregate at 4(a) above exceeds the aggregate at 4(b) above, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 31(4) of the Act, as its Council Tax Requirement for the year

 

	£m
Council Tax Requirement for the Council’s own purposes for 2017/18 (including special expenses re WPCC)	92.370

 

d)         being the aggregate of the sums which the Council estimates will be payable for the year into its General Fund in respect of revenue support grant, and baseline funding (NNDR) to constitute the Council’s Settlement Funding Assessment

 

	£m
Revenue Support Grant including Transition Grant Baseline funding NNDR inc. top-up & Section 31 Grant	0 (44.026)
Settlement Funding Assessment	(44.026)

 

e)         being the amount at 4(c) above, divided by the amount for Council Tax Base at 2 above, calculated by the Council above, in accordance with Section 31B of the Act as the basic amount of its Council Tax for the year (including special items (WPCC)).

 

	£
Merton’s General Band D Council Tax Levy (including properties within Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators area)	1,232.39

 

f)          being the aggregate amount of all special items referred to in Section 34(1) of the Act

 

	£
Wimbledon and Putney Commons Special Levy	342,822

 

g)         being the amount at 4(e) above, less the result given by dividing the amount at 4(f) above by the amount of the Council Tax Base at 2 above in accordance with Section 34 (2) of the Act, as the basic amount of its Council Tax for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which no special items (WPCC special levy) relates.

 

	£
Merton’s General Band D Council Tax Levy (excluding WPCC)	1,227.82

 

h)        being the amounts given by adding to the amount at 4(g) above, the amounts of the special item or items relating to dwellings in the area of Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators (WPCC) mentioned above at 4(f) divided by the amount at 3 above, calculated in accordance with Section 34(1) of the Act, as the basic amounts of its Council Tax for the year for dwellings in the area of WPCC.

 

	£
Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators Band D	1,257.72

 

i)          being the amounts given by multiplying the amounts at 4(g) and 4(h) above by the number which, in the proportion set out in Section 5(1) of the Act, is applicable to dwellings listed in a particular valuation band divided by the number which in that proportion is applicable to dwellings listed in valuation band D, calculated by the Council, in accordance with Section 30 and 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as the amounts to be taken into account for the year in respect of categories of dwellings listed in different valuation bands.

 

Part of the Council’s Area	Valuation Bands
	A £ 818.55	B £ 954.97	C £ 1091.40	D £ 1227.82	E £ 1500.67	F £ 1773.52	G £ 2046.37	H £ 2455.64
Parts inc. WPCC	838.48	978.23	1117.97	1,257.72	1,537.21	1,816.71	2,096.20	2,515.44

 

 

5.         To note that the Greater London Authority have issued precepts to the Council in accordance with Section 40 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 for each category of dwellings in the Council’s area as indicated in the table below, and that the Council agrees the Council Tax levy for 2019/20 by taking the aggregate of 4(i) above and the Greater London Authority precept.

 

Precepting authority	Valuation Bands
	A £	B £	C £	D £	E £	F £	G £	H £
GLA	213.67	249.29	284.90	320.51	391.73	462.96	534.18	641.02

 

            For information purposes this would result in the following Council Tax Levy for Merton residents:

 

Part of the Council’s Area	Valuation Bands
	A £ 1,032.22	B £ 1,204.26	C £ 1,376.30	D £ 1,548.33	E £ 1,892.40	F £ 2,236.48	G £ 2,580.55	H £ 3,096.66
Parts inc. WPCC	1,052.15	1,227.52	1,402.87	1578.23	1,928.94	2,279.67	2,630.38	3,156.46