RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

1.     considers and agrees the response to the Overview and Scrutiny Commission;

2.     resolves 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 2015/16, equating to a Band D Council Tax of £1,102.24 be approved and recommended to Council for approval. This represents a Council Tax freeze.

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

4.     resolves that the Business Plan 2015-19 including the General Fund Budget and Council Tax Strategy for 2015/16, and the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for 2015-2019 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.     resolves 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 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 23 February, 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.     in respect of the new business rates reliefs announced in the Autumn statement 2014, agrees the Merton Council Retail Property Discount 2015/16 and the Merton Council Transitional Relief Discount 2015/16 set out in Appendices 12(a) and 12(b)

The Deputy Leader and the Cabinet Member for Finance presented the Business Plan 2015-19. The report sets out details of how, using the medium term financial planning model the budget has been structured to ensure that a balanced budget would be set for 2015-16, Council Tax frozen and progress made towards a balanced budget over the medium term.

It was noted that the report had to be considered in context of the reduction in the Council grants, that would mean that the Council would need to take £32million out of its budget by 2018-19. The Cabinet Member emphasised that as a result of the severity of the savings required, difficult decisions had and would have to be made, but such decisions would be taken using the Council’s ‘July principles’, as agreed in July 2010.

The Business Plan 2015-19 report itself contained the Budget for 2015-16, Medium Term Financial Strategy 2015-19 Capital Strategy 2015-19 and separate sections detailed Schools budgets.

Terry Downes, (Unison Branch Chair) and Lyla Adwan-Kamara (Chief Executive of Merton Centre for Independent Living) addressed the meeting.

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

1.     considers and agrees the response to the Overview and Scrutiny Commission;

2.     resolves 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 2015/16, equating to a Band D Council Tax of £1,102.24 be approved and recommended to Council for approval. This represents a Council Tax freeze.

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

4.     resolves that the Business Plan 2015-19 including the General Fund Budget and Council Tax Strategy for 2015/16, and the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for 2015-2019 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.     resolves 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 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 23 February, but the provisional figure has been incorporated into the draft MTFS

7.     requests officers 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.     in respect of the new business rates relief announced in the Autumn statement 2014, agrees the Merton Council Retail Property Discount 2015/16 and the Merton Council Transitional Relief Discount 2015/16 set out in Appendices 12(a) and 12(b)