DECISION

1.      Propose a draft General Fund Revenue Funding Requirement of £458.661m for 2024-25 subject to remaining changes arising from the final Local Government Finance Settlement and any other necessary adjustments.

2.      Propose to levy a 2% Adult Social Care precept for 2024-25.

3.      Approve that the Corporate Director Resources, in consultation with the mayor and Cabinet Member for Resources & Cost of living, be authorised to make any changes required to the draft budget following receipt of the Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS) for further consideration at Cabinet on 31 January 2024.

4.      Note the latest draft position of the Council’s reserves, subject to final audit of the statements of accounts.

5.      Approve the HRA housing rent and service charge increases as outlined in section 3.11 of the report.  This includes increasing housing rents for all properties by 7.7% for 2024-25 (CPI +1%), which will also enable updated modelling of the HRA for consideration at Cabinet on 31^st January 2024.

6.      To note this report incorporates the fees & charges changes proposed in another report to Cabinet and they are included in the draft budget and medium-term financial strategy.

7.      Agree that the National Schools Funding Formula (NSFF) adopted by Tower Hamlets originally in 2019-20 continues for 2024-25. The only changes included are increases to the factor values in line with the NSFF.

8.      Agree that the Minimum Funding Guarantee (the mechanism that guarantees schools a minimum uplift in per-pupil funding) is set as close to 0.5% as affordable, the maximum allowed after consideration for growth and factor changes in School allocations.

9.      Agree that the structure of the Early Years Funding Formula remains unchanged except for the introduction of the expanded two-year-old entitlement and new provision from 9 months from September 2024 with revised hourly rates increases in line with the Early Years National Funding Formula.

10.   Note that the Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme will remain unchanged for 2024-25.

11.   Note the School funding position set out at Section 3.10 of the report, in particular the overall Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficit.

12.   Note the Equalities Implications as set out in Section 5 of the report.

13.   Note the Council Taxbase calculations in Appendix 4 to the report.

Action by:

CORPORATE DIRECTOR RESOURCES (J. LORRAINE)

Interim Director of Finance, Procurement and Audit (J. Harrison)